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THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION 
OF THE BLESSED MARTYRS OF 
CHRIST, MARCELLINUS 
AND PETER 


e 


LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD 
Oxford University Press 


i: NOV a 1926. 






Blessed Martyrs of Christ 
| Marcellinus and Peter 2» 


S i") ne 
THE ENGLISH econ 


BY BARRETT’ WENDELL 






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COPYRIGHT, 1926 
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF 
HARVARD COLLEGE 


FIVE HUNDRED COPIES 
PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.A. 


TYPE ARRANGED BY BRUCE ROGERS 


cforeGord. 


HEN, in the course of preparing my 

book on the Traditions of European Lit- 

erature, I turned to Eginhard’s Life of 

Charlemagne, I chanced, in the Teulet 
edition of his works (1840-43), on this History of the 
Translation of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. So far as 
I am aware, the only familiar reference to it in English 
is in an essay by Huxley, touching on its therapeutic 
aspect. To me it seemed interesting also for its vivid 
glimpses of life in the Ninth Century. And Teulet’s 
clear translation came so far from reproducing the 
effect of Eginhard’s style,— pure in vocabulary, but 
very crude in syntax, yet rhythmic, — that I amused 
myself by attempting this English translation from 
the Latin. Were J familiar with Latin, and particularly 
with the text of the Vulgate Bible, I might have done 
it much better; for I rather think that he often uses 
phrases taken straight from his reading. If so, at least 
when we come to Scripture, the words of the te 
English translation would be fittest. 

As to Eginhard, Teulet’s introduction and notes 
tell all that need be known, and indeed about all that 
is known. A Frankish gentleman, about thirty years 
old in 800, he was educated at the court of Charle- 
magne, and held high office in the Emperor’s last years 


and under his son Louis. There is no authority for the 
legend that Eginhard’s wife, Emma, was Charlemagne’s 
daughter. In Eginhard’s later years, he became an ec- 
clesiastic; and this account of how things then went 
with him was written when he was somewhere about 
sixty years old. 

BARRETT WENDELL 


Boston ATHENAEUM, 
4 December, 1920 


THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION 
OF THE BLESSED MARTYRS OF 
CHRIST, MARCELLINUS 
AND PETER 


e 


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H * ‘ 4 


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ie HIS rORY. OF 
The Translation of The 
Blessed Martyrs of Christ 
Marcellinus and Peter. 


Dreface. 


O true worshippers of the true God, and to 

unfeigned lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ and 

of His Saints, Eginhard a sinner. Those who 

have committed to letters and to memory the 
lives and deeds of the j just, and of men who obey divine 
commands, seem to me to have wished little else than 
by such examples to encourage others to correct bad 
habits and to join in praising the omnipotence of God. 
And they have done this not only because they were 
free from malice but because they abounded in charity, 
which desires the good of all. Now since their worthy 
purpose is so very clearly only to bring about the ends 
which I have mentioned, I see no reason why they 
should not be imitated by many. And since I am sure 
that the pages which I have written, as well as I could, 
about the translation of the bodies of those blessed 


a 


martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, and about 
the signs and wonders which God has willed to be 
wrought through them for the health of believers, were 
composed with the same wish and purpose, I have de- 
cided to revise them and to offer them to such readers 
as love God. For I not only think that this work 
should not seem empty and purposeless to any 
of the faithful, but I also venture to be- 
lieve that I have worked fruitfully and 
usefully, if I shall have succeeded 
in stirring any reader to the 
praise of his Creator. 


Cfapter T 


MESSENGERS SENT BY EGINHARD TO ROME 
TO PROCURE RELICS OBTAIN THOSE OF 
SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER. ee 


HEN, still at court and busy with secular 

matters, I used often to think in all man- 

ner of ways about the repose which I hoped 

some time to enjoy, I came across a little- 
known place, far removed from the vulgar crowd; and 
by ‘the generosity of Louis, the prince whom I then 
served, I became possessed of it. This place is in the 
German forest which lies midway between the rivers 
Neckar and Main, and in our times is called Odenwald 
by the inhabitants and their neighbours. When, ac- 
cording to my powers and means, I had built there not 
only houses and other places of permanent habitation 
but also a church of no unsuitable design for the cele- 
bration of divine service, I began to wonder in the name 
and honour of what saint or martyr it had best be dedi- 
cated. And when a great deal of time had passed in this 
wavering of mind, it happened that a certain deacon of 
the Roman Church, by name Deusdona, who desired to 
request the help of the king in some needs of his own, 
came to court. When, after he had stayed there for 
some time and the business on which he had come was 
settled, he was arranging to return to Rome, he was 


5 


invited byus one day,as a matter of politeness, to come, 
as a visitor, to our frugal dinner; and there, while talk- 
ing a good deal at table, we chanced in conversation to 
reach a point where mention was made of the transla- 
tion of the Blessed Sebastian, and of the neglected 
tombs of the martyrs of which there is a great abund- 
ance at Rome. Then, the talk turning on the dedication 
of our new church, I began to ask him by what means I 
could bring it about that some bit of the true relics of 
the saints, who lie at rest in Rome, could be obtained 
by me. Here he at first hesitated a little, and answered 
that he did not know how this could be managed. Then, 
when he perceived that I was eager and anxious about 
this matter, he promised that he would answer my 
question some other day. 

Afterwards, when he was invited by me again, he 
presently took from the folds of his garment a written 
note, requesting that I should read it when alone, and 
that I would be so good as to tell him how I liked what 
was there set down. I took the note, and as he desired 
read it alone and without mentioning it. The contents 
were as follows: he had at home a great many relics of 
saints, and he was willing to give them to me, if helped 
by what I might do for him he could get back to Rome; 
he understood that I had two mules — if I would give 
him one of these, and send with him a trusty man of my 
own, who could receive the relics from him and bring 
them back to me, he would send them to me at once. 
The general temper of his request pleased me, and I 
made up my mind to test the value of his indefinite 


6 


promise without delay; so, having given him the animal 
he asked for, and added money for his journey, I or- 
dered my notary, by name Ratleig, who had himself 
made a vow to visit Rome for purposes of prayer, to go 
with him. So setting out from Aix-la~-Chapelle — for at 
that time the Emperor was there with his court — they 
came to Soissons; and there they had some talk with — 
Hildoin, the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Médard, 
for the deacon aforesaid had promised him that he 
would so arrange things that the body of the blessed 
martyr Tiburtius should come into his possession. 
Charmed by these promises, the abbot sent with them 
a certain priest, a crafty man by name Lehun, with or- 
ders to bring him the body of the aforesaid martyr 
when received from the deacon. The journey thus be- 
gun, they made their way toward Rome as fast as they 


‘eels 


Now it happened, after they had reached Italy, that 
the servant of my notary, by name Reginbald, seized 
with a tertian fever, made, by reason of his repeated at- 
tacks, no small delay in their journey; because at the 
times when he fell into the heats of fever they could not 
travel. For they were few, and therefore indisposed to 
separate from one another. And at a time when their 
progress had been no little impeded by this inconven- 
ience, and they were hastening it as much as they could, 
three days before they came to the city, there appeared 
in a vision to him who was sick of a fever a certain man 
in the dress of a deacon, asking him why his master was 
hurrying to Rome. And when he told him all he knew 


7 


about both the promises of the deacon to send me relics 
of the saints and those which he had promised the Ab- 
bot Hildoin, “This will not come to pass,” he said; 
“but far otherwise than you now suppose, the purpose 
for which you come shall be fulfilled. For that deacon 
who has asked you to come to Rome will do little or 
nothing of what he has promised you; and therefore I 
wish you to follow me and carefully to treasure in your 
mind those things which I shall show and tell you.” 
Then taking him, as it seemed to him, by the hand, 
he made him climb with him to the summit of an ex- 
ceeding high mountain. And when they stood there to- 
gether: “Turn,” he said, “to the east, and observe the 
country laid open to your eyes.” When he did so, and 
observed the country of which these words were spoken 
to him, he saw there structures of vast size, built close 
together after the manner of some great city, and asked 
by his companion if he knew what it was he replied 
that he did not know. Then his companion said: “It is 
Rome that you see.”” And he presently added: “Turn 
your eyes to the midst of the city, and see if any church 
appears to you in that region.’’ And when he said that 
he saw a certain church clearly, “Go,” said his com- 
panion, “and tell Ratleig, for in the church which you 
have just seen that thing lies hidden which he shall 
bring to his master: and so let him set to work that he 
shall lay hand on it as soon as can be brought about, 
and go back to his master.” And when he said that 
none of those who had come with him would put any 
faith in what he said about such things as these, his 


8 


companion answered and said: “ You know that all who 
travel with you are troubled because for a great many 
days you have suffered from a tertian fever, and have 
not yet had any abating of it.’”’ And he said: “It is as 
you say.” “Therefore,” said his companion, “J wish 
that this shall be a sign unto thee, and to those to 
whom you shall tell the words I have spoken to you, for 
from this hour you shall be so cured, by the loving 
kindness of God, from the fever by which until now you 
have been detained, that it shall not touch you at all in 
the rest of this journey.”” Awakened by these words, he 
made haste to report to Ratleig everything which he 
had seemed to see and to hear. When Ratleig told these 
things to the priest who travelled with him, it seemed 
to them both that the test of the dream would be 
whether the promise of health came true; for on that 
_ very day, according to the nature of the disease from 
which he had been suffering, a fever should have at- 
tacked him who had seen the vision. And that it was 
not a vain fancy but rather a true revelation was clear, 
for neither on that day nor on any of those which fol- 
lowed it did he feel in his body any trace of the fevers 
to which he had been used. And so it came to pass both 
that they believed in the vision, and had no more faith 
in the promises of Deusdona, the deacon. 

So coming to Rome, they took up their abode near 
the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter, which is called 
Ad Vincula, in the house of the deacon with whom they 
had come; and they remained with him some days, 
awaiting the fulfilment of his promises. But he, who 


a 


was quite unable to make good his agreements, ex- 
cused himself for not doing so by various pretexts of 
delay. At last, having speech with him, they asked why 
he chose to trifle with them so; requesting at the same 
time that he no longer delay them with disappoint- 
ments and prevent their return by vain hopes. When he 
had heard them, and perceived that he could no longer 
impose on them with trickery of this kind, he first in- 
formed my notary concerning the relics promised to me 
that he could not have them, for the reason that his 
brother, to whom on leaving Rome he had entrusted 
both his house and all he possessed, was gone on busi- 
ness to Beneventum, and that he had no sort of idea 
when he would return, and that since he had given him 
for safe-keeping those relics, together with other por- 
table property, he could not tell what he had done with 
them, for he could not find them anywhere in the house; 
so it was my notary’s part to see what could be done, 
for there was nothing more to hope from him. After he 
had said this to my notary, who complained at being 
deceived and tricked by him, he talked in I know not 
what empty and trifling terms with the priest of Hil- 
doin, who had cherished the same hopes, and so got rid 
of him. But next day, when he saw them in very low 
spirits, he urged them to come with him to the burial 
places of the saints; for it seemed to him that they 
might find there some such thing as should satisfy their 
desires, and that there was no need of their going home 
empty-handed. But when this proposal pleased them, 
and they wished to set about what he had urged them 


Io 


to do as soon as they could, he put off the business, in 
his habitual way, and by this delay threw their minds, 
which for a little while had been revived, into such 
despair that, giving him up altogether, they decided, 
although their business was quite unaccomplished, to 
return home. 

But my notary, remembering the dream which his 
servant had had, began to urge his companion that, 
without their host, they should go to the burial places 
which he had promised that he would take them to see. 
So having found a guide who regularly conducted trav- 
ellers to these holy places they first came to the church 
of the Blessed Martyr Tiburtius, on the Via Labicana, 
three miles away from the city, and examined the tomb 
of the martyr as carefully as they possibly could; and 
discussed with the greatest privacy the question of 
_ whether it could be so opened that nobody else should 
notice the fact. Then they went down into a crypt near 
this church, in which the bodies of the Blessed Martyrs 
of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, were buried; and 
having examined the nature of this monument also, 
they went home, thinking that they could keep secret 
from their host what they had been about. But it fell 
out otherwise than they expected. For, although they 
knew not by what means, knowledge of what they had 
done came to him with little delay; and fearing lest 
they should accomplish their desires without him he 
made up his mind to make haste to anticipate their 
purpose. And since he had full and complete know- 
ledge of those holy places, he politely addressed himself 


II 


to them, and urged that they should all go there to- 
gether; and if God should deign to favor their wishes, ° 
they would take counsel with one another concerning 
what it might seem best to do. 

They agreed to his plan, and by common consent 
fixed on a time for beginning it. Then, after fasting for 
three days, they went by night, unremarked by any in- 
habitant of Rome, to the place I have mentioned; and 
having got into the church of Saint Tiburtius, they first 
attempted to open the altar under which his holy body 
was believed to lie. But the beginning of their intended 
work was little to their liking; for the monument, built 
of very hard marble, easily resisted the inexpert hands 
of those who were trying to open it. So leaving the 
burial place of that martyr, they went down to the 
tomb of the Blessed Marcellinus and Peter; and there 
having invoked our Lord Jesus Christ, and having 
prayed to the holy Martyrs, they managed to lift from 
its place the stone with which the top of the tomb was © 
covered. When they had taken this off, they saw the 
most holy body of Saint Marcellinus, placed in the upper 
part of that tomb, and close to his head a marble tablet, 
which by an inscription which it contained gave them 
clear proof of what martyr’s limbs lay in that place. So, 
as was meet, they lifted up the body with the greatest 
reverence, and having wrapped it in clean fine linen 
they handed it to the deacon, to carry and to keep for 
them. And having replaced the stone, lest some trace 
that the body had been taken away should remain, 
they went back to their abode in the city. But the dea- 


12 


con, declaring that in the house where he dwelt, near 
the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter which is called 
Ad Vincula, he would and could keep safe the body of 
the most blessed Martyr which he had taken in charge, 
gave it into the keeping of a brother of his, by name 
Luniso; and thinking that this would satisfy my notary 
he began to urge him that having obtained the body of 
the blessed Marcellinus he should return to his own 
country. 

But he was thinking and turning over in his mind a 
far different thing. For, as he afterwards told me, it 
seemed to him by no means admissible that he should - 
go home with the body of the blessed Marcellinus 
alone; it would be a great shame if the body of the 
blessed martyr Peter, who had been his fellow in suf- 
fering, and through five hundred years and more had 
_ jain with him in the same sepulchre, should be left 
there when he was going from thence. And having con- 
ceived this idea in his mind, he was so vexed by its 
growth and restlessness within him that neither food 
nor falling asleep could seem to him sweet and pleasant 
unless the bodies of the martyrs, even as they had been 
joined together in suffering and in the tomb, could be 
joined also in the journey on which he was about to set 
forth. But in what manner this could be brought about, 
he was very doubtful; for he knew that he could find no 
Roman who would give him any help to this end, nor 
even any to whom he would dare expose the secret pur- 
poses of his mind. Laboring under this heaviness of 
heart, he chanced to meet a certain foreign monk, by 


13 


name Basil, who two years before had come from Con- 
stantinople to Rome, and there on the Palatine hill 
abode, with four disciples, in the house of other Greeks, 
who were of the same persuasion as he. He went to him 
and laid open the trouble from which he was suffering. 
Then fortified by his advice and trusting in his prayers 
he found his heart so strengthened that he determined 
that, even though at the risk of his head, the thing 
should be attempted as soon as he could. And sending 
for his companion, the priest of Hildoin, he began by 
proposing to him that they should go again in secret, 
as they had done before, to the church of the Blessed 
Tiburtius, and endeavor once more to open the tomb 
in which the body of the Martyr was believed to be 
buried. 

The proposal was welcome; and taking along the 
servants whom they had brought with them, they set 
out secretly at night, their host having no sort of notion 
of where they were going. And when they had come to 
the church, and made vows before the doors of it for the 
success of their purpose, they went inside; then, divid- 
ing the company, the priest remained with some of the 
them to hunt for the body of the blessed Tiburtius in 
the church bearing his name; and Ratleig with others 
went down to the body of the blessed Peter, in the 
crypt close to the church; and having opened the tomb 
without any difficulty, he took out the sacred limbs of 
the holy Martyr, with no opposition, and put them, 
once in his possession, into a silken bag, which he had 
made ready for them. Meanwhile, the priest who was 


14 


searching for the body of the blessed Tiburtius, having 
spent much time in useless work, and seeing that he 
could get no further, gave up his efforts, and came down 
to Ratleig in the crypt, and began to ask him what was 
to be done. When he answered that he thought that the 
relics of Saint Tiburtius were found, and explained 
what he meant, — for a little before the said priest had 
come to him in the crypt, he had found, in the same 
tomb in which the bodies of Saints Marcellinus and 
Peter lay, a certain hole, round in form, dug to the 
depth of three good feet, and a full foot wide, and 
placed in it was no small quantity of very fine dust, — 
it seemed to them both that this dust could have been 
left from the body of the blessed Tiburtius if his bones 
had been taken from thence: and, in order that it 
should be harder to find, it might have been placed just 
_ between the blessed Marcellinus and Peter, in the same 
tomb: and it was agreed between them that the priest 
should take it and carry it away with him as the relics 
of the blessed Tiburtius. 

Having thus considered and decided these matters, 
they went back to their lodgings with the things which 
they had found. After this, Ratleig, in talk with his 
host, requested that he give him back the holy ashes of 
the blessed Marcellinus which he had entrusted to him 
to be kept safe, and that he would detain him, now 
wishing to return to his own country, with no needless 
delay. And he not only restored at once what was asked 
for, but also offered no small quantity of relics of saints, 
tied up in a bundle, to be carried to me; and asked 


15 


what their names were he answered that he would tell 
me himself when he should come to see me. He recom- 
mended, however, that these relics should be treated 
with the same respect shown to those of other holy 
Martyrs, for the reason that they had acquired as 
much merit in the sight of God as the blessed 
Marcellinus and Peter: and that I should 
believe this as soon as knowledge of 
their names came to me. Ratleig 
took theoffered gift,and, ashe 
was advised, put it with 
the bodies of the 
holy Martyrs. 


Carter Di) 


THE HOLY RELICS ARE CARRIED THROUGH 
DIVERS PLACES TO MICHILINSTADT, AND 
AFTER SUNDRY VISIONS TO MULINHEIM, 
LATER CALLED SELIGENSTADT. e@@eeaoeee 


AVING taken counsel with his host, he ar- 
ranged that the holy and much-desired 
treasure, placed and sealed up in caskets, 
should be taken as far as Pavia by the host’s 

brother Luniso, of whom we have made mention above, 
and also by the priest of Hildoin, who had come with 
him. As for himself, he remained with his host at Rome, 
watching and listening for seven successive days, to see 
whether anything about the removal of the bodies of 
the saints should come to the knowledge of the citizens. 
And when he saw that no mention of this fact was made 
by any stranger, and concluded the matter safe, he set 
out after those whom he had sent ahead, taking his host 
along with him. And when they found them tarrying 
for them at Ticino, in the church of the Blessed John 
the Baptist, which is commonly called Domnanae, and 
at that time through the generosity of my king was in 
my possession, they decided that they too would stop 
there for some days, both to refresh the beasts on 
which they had travelled and to prepare themselves for 
a longer journey. 


17 


At this time of their tarrying, a rumor arose that am- 
bassadors of the holy Roman Church, sent by the Pope 
to the Emperor, would soon arrive there. So, fearing 
that, if found there on their coming, something incon- 
venient to themselves, or even an obstacle, might occur, 
they decided that some of them should hurry to get 
away before the embassy arrived; that the rest should 
stay there, and that after the matter concerning which 
they were anxious had been carefully examined, and 
the embassy had proceeded on its way, they should 
make haste to follow their friends, whom they had sent 
on ahead. So when they had thus settled things among 
themselves, Deusdona with the priest of Hildoin left 
before the ambassadors from Rome arrived, and made 
what haste they could for Soissons, where Hildoin was 
thought to be; but Ratleig, with the true treasure 
which he had with him, remained at Pavia, waiting un- ° 
til the ambassadors of the Apostolic See should pass by, 
so that when they had crossed the Alps he might make 
his own journey more safely. But fearing lest the priest 
of Hildoin, who had gone on with Deusdona, and who 
had full and complete knowledge of all that had been 
done and arranged between them, and who seemed 
tricky and slippery, might undertake to put some ob- | 
stacle in the road by which he had planned to travel, he 
made up his mind that he had best go another way; so, 
after sending on to me the servant of our steward As- 
colf with letters in which he informed me both of his 
own return and that he was bringing the treasure which 
divine aid had discovered, he himself, after by reckon- 


18 


ing the stopping places made ready for the Romans he 
thought they must have passed the Alps, left Pavia and 
in six days came to Saint Maurice. And there, having 
procured what seemed needful, he placed those holy 
bodies, enclosed in a casket, on a bier; and going on from 
thence he began to carry them publicly and openly, 
with the help of the people who flocked to meet him. 
When he had passed the place which is called the 
Head of the Lake he found a fork in the road by which 
the ways leading to France are divided in two; and tak- 
ing the path to the right he came, through the territory 
of the Germans, to Soleure, a town of the Burgundians. 
There he met those whom, after the news of his coming 
had reached me, I had ordered to go from Maestricht to 
his assistance. For at the time when the letters of my 
notary were brought me by that servant of the steward 
- of whom we have mademention above, I was at the mon- 
astery of Saint Bavon, on the river Scheldt. Informed 
by the reading of these letters of the coming of the 
Saints, I ordered one of our household to go from thence 
to Maestricht, and there to collect a company of priests 
and other clergy, as well as of laymen, and to hurry to 
meet the approaching saints wherever he first could. 
And he, making no delay, together with those whom he 
took with him, in a few days met, at the place which I 
have named, those who were bearing on the saints: and 
joining together, accompanied then and increasingly 
thereafter by hymning troops of people, they soon 
came, with general rejoicing, to the city of Argentora- 
tum, which is now called Strasbourg. Thence sailing 


19 


down the Rhine, when they came to a place which is 
called Portus (the Harbour) they disembarked on the 
east bank of the river, and after five days journey, with 
a very great multitude of men rejoicing in the praises of 
God, they came to the place called Michilinstadt. That 
place is in that German forest which in present times is 
called Odenwald, and is about six leagues distant from 
the river Main. When they found there the church 
newly built by me, but not yet dedicated, they bore the 
holy ashes into it, and there set them down, as if they 
were always to stay there. 

When this news was brought me, I made haste to go 
thither as fast as I could. There, three days after our ar- 
rival being completed, when at the end of the vespers 
service a certain servant of Ratleig, by his orders, re- 
mained alone in the church, everybody else having de- 
parted, and with closed doors sat close to those holy 
bodies in the chancel, to keep watch over them as it 
were, he was of a sudden overcome by sleep, and sleep- 
ing he saw as it were two doves come flying through the 
right window of the apse, and light on the top of the 
bier above those bodies of the Saints: one of them ap- 
peared all white, the other dappled with the colours 
white and gray. And when they had walked up and 
down on the top of the bier for a good while, and had 
uttered again and again the sighs customary to doves, 
as if talking together, they passed out through the 
same window, and were seen no more. And immediately 
thereafter a voice was heard above the servant’s head: 
“Go,” it said, “and tell Ratleig to inform his master 


20 


that those holy Martyrs are unwilling that their bodies 
shall rest in this place: for they have chosen another to 
which they desire to be taken at once.” To him the ut- 
terer of this voice was not visible; but when the sound 
ceased he awoke, and aroused from sleep he told Rat- 
leig, when he came back to the church, what he had 
seen. And Ratleig next day, as soon as he could come to 
me, was at pains to report to me what his servant had 
told him. Now I, although I dared not disdain the mys- 
tery of this vision, nevertheless determined that it must 
be confirmed in some more definite manner; and mean- 
time I had those holy ashes taken from the linen pack- 
ages bound with cords in which they had travelled, and 
sewn up in new-cushions made of silk. And when, on 
looking at them, I perceived the relics of the blessed 
Marcellinus to be smaller in quantity than those of the 
holy Peter, I thought that he had been smaller in stat- 
ure and dimensions of body than the holy Peter. But 
that this was not the case, a theft later discovered made 
plain; where, and when, and by whom, and how this was 
accomplished and discovered I will tell in the proper 
place: now the course of the story I am telling must be 
held without interruption. 

Now after I had examined that great and marvellous 
treasure, more precious than all gold, the casket in 
which it was contained began exceedingly to displease 
me, by reason of the baseness of the material of which it 
was made. Desiring to amend this, I directed one of the 
vergers, one day when the vespers service was at an 
end, to bring me the dimensions of the casket measured 


21 


by arod. When to do this he lighted a candle, and lifted 
up the hanging clothes with which the casket was cov- 
ered, he observed the casket after a wondrous fashion 
to be exuding a fluid of the colour of blood; and, greatly 
alarmed by the strangeness of the fact, he took instant 
measures to inform me of what he had seen. Then I 
went thither, with the priests who had gathered near 
by, and saw for myself that astonishing miracle, which 
set us all to wondering. For as columns and slabs or 
images of marble are wont, when rain is at hand, to 
sweat and drip, so that casket, which contained the 
most holy bodies, was found to be wet with fresh blood 
and sprinkled with it everywhere. The unusual and 
indeed unheard-of nature of the miracle alarmed us. 
Wherefore, after taking counsel, we decided to pass 
three days in fasting and prayer, so that we might be 
worthy to know by divine revelation what that great 
and unspeakable prodigy meant, and what it bade us 
do. And it fell out that when the three days’ fast was 
completed, and evening was already growing late, that _ 
moisture as of dreadful blood began of a sudden to dry 
up; and after a wondrous fashion that which had oozed 
forth for seven successive days as if it were to last and 
be incessant became in a very few hours so completely 
dry that when still in the night-time — for it was Sun- 
day — the bell summoned us to the service which was 
celebrated before dawn and we went into the church, 
no trace of it could be found on the casket. But the 
linen cloths which hung about the casket, and had been 
so besprinkled with the fluid that they were stained 


22 


with spots like blood-stains, I ordered to be preserved: 
and on them appears to this day much evidence of that 
great, unheard-of prodigy. For it is established that the 
fluid was of a brackish savour, as it were like the taste 
of tears, and of a thinness like that of water, but had 
the colour of true blood. 

In the quiet of that same night, two youths were 
seen standing beside him by one of our servants, by 
name Roland, and, as he himself bore witness, they 
bade him tell me many things concerning the need of 
translating the bodies of the Saints: and they showed 
him whither and how this ought to be done: and, with 
terrifying threats they commanded that this should be 
told me without delay. And as soon as he could have 
access to me, he took care to tell me the things that he 
had been bidden to tell. When I had heard them, I be- 
gan to fret myself with great anxiety, and to turn over 
in my mind what I ought to do: whether fasting and 
prayer should again be observed, and God once more 
appealed to for the settlement of our questions; or 
whether some devout and faultless servant of Gad 
should be sought for, to whom we could make plain the 
trouble of our heart and the plaints of our perplexities, 
and of whom we might request that by his prayers he 
should bring to pass a clear direction to us from God 
concerning this matter. But where and when could such 
a fellow of Christ’s household be found by us, particu- 
larly in those parts? For although certain monasteries 
had been established not far from the place where we 
were, nevertheless, by reason of the rude manners 


23 


thereabouts prevalent, there were few men or none of 
whom anything of the kind or even the slightest rumor 
of it was reported. Meantime, while thus troubled I 
was praying for the assistance of the holy Martyrs, and 
eagerly requesting all who were there with us to do the 
same, it happened that for several days no night passed 
in which it was not revealed in dreams to one, or two, or 
even three of our companions that those bodies of the 
Saints must be translated from that place to another. 
And at last, as he himself avers, there appeared in a 
vision to a certain priest of those who were there with 
us, by name Hildfrid, a certain man in priestly gar- 
ment, remarkable for the venerable whiteness of his 
hair, and clothed in white, who accosted him with 
words like these: “Why,” he said, “is Eginhard so 
hard of heart and so obstinate that he will not put faith 
in so many revelations, and thinks that so many coun- 
sels divinely sent him may be despised? Go and tell him 
that what the blessed Martyrs desire to be done with 
their bodies cannot remain undone. And as until this 
moment he has delayed satisfying their wish in this 
matter, let him now, if he does not wish the merit of the 
deed to pass to somebody else, make haste to obey their 
command; and not neglect to carry their bodies to the 
place which they have chosen.”’ 

After these warnings and others of divers kinds had 
been conveyed to me, it seemed to me that the new 
translation of the holy ashes must not longer be de- 
layed; and so, having taken counsel, we decided that 
we would hasten to accomplish the thing as fast as it 


24 


could be done. So, at dawn one day, after the morning 
service was finished, after making ready, quickly but 
with the greatest pains, everything which seemed need- 
ful for this convoy, we took up that holy and priceless 
treasure, amid very great grief and lamentation from 
those who were to remain in that place, and starting on 
our way to carry it, accompanied by a multitude of the 
poor who in those days had flocked thither from all 
sides for the purpose of receiving alms; for the people 
who lived thereabout knew nothing about our plans 
and purposes. The sky was heavy with foul clouds, 
which must soon be melted into very heavy rain, un- 
less divine care should forbid; for all night long it had 
uninterruptedly rained so hard that it had seemed 
hardly possible to begin our journey next day. But that 
doubt of ours, which came from weakness of faith, the 
_ Grace which is on High resolved through the merits of 
His saints far otherwise than we expected: for we per- 
ceived that the way by which we travelled had been 
changed to another condition than we had looked for: 
we both. found little mud and discovered that the 
streams, which in so heavy and continuous a rain as 
there had been that night are apt to rise, were hardly 
swollen at all. And when, coming forth from the wood, 
we came near to the nearest villages, we were met in our 
way by many multitudes, giving praise to God. And 
they went with us for the space of about eight leagues, 
devoutly helping us all in the carrying of our holy bur- 
den, and in singing God’s praise they diligently joined 


their voices with ours. 


25 


But when we saw that we could not arrive on that 
day at the place of our destination, we turned aside at a 
village called Ostheim, which was visible near our road; 
and just as evening was falling we bore those holy 
bodies into the church of the Blessed Martin which is in 
that village: and leaving there most of our company to 
keep watch over them I myself, with a few, made haste | 
onward to the place whither we were bound; and 
throughout the night made ready all those things which 
custom prescribes for the reception of the bodies of 
saints. But in the church in which we left the sacred 
treasure of those remains, a certain nun shaken with 
palsy, by name Ruodlang, of the convent of Maches- 
bach, which is distant from that church the space of one 
league, who had been brought thither in a cart by 
friends and neighbours, and who had passed the whole 
night among those gathered there for watch and prayer 
beside the bier of the saints, recovered the strength of 
all her limbs; and on her own feet, with no one support- 
ing or in the least degree assisting her, she walked back 
on the morrow to the place from whence she had.come. 

But we, stirring ourselves at daybreak started to go 
meet our companions who were coming, having with us 
a countless company of our neighbours, who aroused 
by the news of the approach of the saints had gathered 
before our doors even at that first gleam of dawn, so 
that they might journey with us to meet the saints. 
And we came upon them at the place where the brook - 
Gernsprinz empties into the Main. Thence, going all to- 
gether, and singing together the praise of the mercy of 


26 


our Lord Jesus Christ, we bore those holy remnants of 
the most blessed Martyrs, amid the great gladness and 
exultation of all who could be there, to Upper Mulin- 
heim — for so, in these times, the place is called. But, 
because of the very great multitude of people who going 
thither before us had filled the town, we could neither 
make our way to the church nor carry the bier into it; 
so in a field near by, and on a rising ground, we set up 
an altar under the open sky; and having set down the 
bier hard by the altar we celebrated the solemn offices 
of the Mass. And when these were finished, and the 
multitude had gone back to their tasks, we bore those 
most holy bodies into the church demanded by the 
blessed Martyrs; and having placed the bier before the 
altar, we carefully celebrated the Mass once again. And 
while the celebration was there proceeding, a certain 
boy of about fifteen years, by name Daniel, from the 
Portian country, who was come thither with others of 
the poor to beg, and was so bent that unless he lay down 
on his back he could not see the heavens, came close to 
the bier; and of a sudden, as if struck by a blow, he fell 
down. And after he had lain there a good while, like unto 
one sleeping, all his limbs were straightened, and regain- 
ing the strength of his sinews he rose up before our eyes 
and was sound. These things came to pass on the six- 
teenth day before the calends of February, and the light 
of that day was so great and so clear that it equalled 
the splendour of the sun in summer; and the calmness 
of the very air was so gentle and sweet that it seemed 
with soft sunshine to surpass the season of spring. 


27 


And next day we placed the holy bodies of the blessed 
Martyrs, enclosed in a new shrine, in the apse of the 
church; and as is the custom in France we put over it a 
wooden frame and to give it the grace of beauty cov- 
ered it with cloths of fine linen and silk; and near by we 
made an altar. And setting up beside it, one on each 
side, the two standards of Our Lord’s passion which on 
our journey had gone before the bier, we took pains, 
within the limits permitted by the narrowness of our 
means, to make that place fitting and suitable for the 
celebration of divine services; and appointed clergy 
who should keep wakeful watch there night and day, 
and should diligently and continually utter the praises 

of the Lord. And when these had been called to 

their post, not only by our desire but by a 
royal letter which had been sent to meet 
-us on the way, we betook ourselves 
once more to the Emperor’s pal- 
ace, with great rejoicing of 
spirit; and the Lord pros- 
pered our journey. 


Cfapter 3. 


SOME RELICS OF SAINT MARCELLINUS, PRE- 
VIOUSLY STOLEN, ARE RECOVERED, AND 
TRANSLATED TO OTHER PLACES. 2@ MIRA- 


CLES WROUGHT.” Sao gaara reyaeyTa 


NLY a few days after I had come to court, 
having risen pretty early as 1s the custom of 
imperial officials, I went to the palace the 
first thing in the morning. When I entered 

there, I found Hildoin, of whom I made mention in the 
former book, seated by the door of the royal bedcham- 
_ ber and awaiting the appearance of the prince. Having 
greeted him as good manners teach us, I asked him to 
rise and come with me to a certain window from which 
there is a view of the lower parts of the palace. Leaning 
against it side by side, we had much talk about the 
translation of the holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, 
and of that wondrous miracle as well which was made 
manifest in the flux of blood with which I have recorded 
that their casket sweated for seven days. And when we 
came to that part of our discourse where mention was 
made of the garments which were found with the 
bodies, and I said that the robe of the blessed Marcel- 

1. Here begins Book II, in the Surian edition; and that the division 


into books is really the author’s appears from the words “of whom I 
made mention in the former book.” 


29 


linus was of wondrously fine texture, he answered, like 
one who had had seen the object as much as I had, that 
what I said about the robes was true. Astonished and 
perplexed by this, I proceeded to ask him whence this 
knowledge of garments which he had never seen could 
have reached him. But he, looking me in the face, kept 
silent for a little while, and then said “It is better, I 
think, that you should know from me what if I did not 
speak you would nevertheless soon know from others, 
and that I should exactly inform you of a matter which 
any other informer will not tell you with exactness, nor 
indeed can, for it is so provided by nature that no one 
can speak the whole truth about a thing of which he 
acquired knowledge not by experience but by the ac- 
counts of others. I so trust your character that I believe 
you will deal justly with me when by my story you 
know the whole truth about what has been done.” 
And when I had answered in few words that I would 
not deal with him otherwise than was fitting, “The 
priest,” he said, “who by my order proceeded to Rome 
for the purpose of bringing me the relics of the blessed 
Tiburtius, when he found that he could not accomplish 
as he desired the end for which he was come there, and 
when your notary after receiving the relics of the holy 
Martyrs about which we have been talking had de- 
cided to return home, advised that he should tarry at 
Rome a little longer, while the priest himself, with Lu- 
niso the brother of Deusdona and with his men who 
were to bear those holy ashes, should go on before him 
as far as Pavia, and should there await his coming with 


30 


Deusdona. The plan pleased them both, and leaving 
the two at Rome, the priest, with Luniso and the serv- 
ants who bore the relics, set out for Pavia. When they 
arrived there, the caskets containing the holy ashes 
were placed in your church behind the altar, and in that 
church were guarded by clergy and laity with most 
watchful care. But one night, when the priest himself 
among others was watching in the church to this end, it 
happened, as he asserts, that just about the middle of 
the night, drowsiness gradually stealing upon them, 
every one of those who were gathered within that 
church for the purpose of keeping watch, except he him- 
self, fell asleep. Then he fell to pondering, and it seemed 
that without some great purpose it could not have come 
to pass that so sudden a slumber should overcome so 
many men; and deciding that he ought to avail himself 
_ of the chance offered him he rose up, and with a lighted 
taper made his way noiselessly to the caskets. Then, 
burning the cords of the seals by putting the flame of 
the taper close to them, he quickly opened the caskets 
without a key; and taking of each body a portion, such 
as he thought most prudent, he fastened the seals to- 
gether again, as if they had been unbroken, with the 
ends of the burnt cords; and, no one having seen what 
he had done, he went back to his own seat. Afterwards, 
when he had got back to me, he gave me the relics of 
the saints thus obtained by theft, and at first declared 
that they were not of Saint Marcellinus or Saint Peter 
but of Saint Tiburtius. Then, as he feared I know not 
what, he told me in secret of what saints the relics were, 


44 


and fully explained to me by what means he had got 
hold of them. We have placed them in Saint-Médard’s 
in a place where honour is formally done them, and 
where they are worshipped with great reverence by all 
who come thither; but whether they are rightly ours 
remains for you to decide.” 

When I heard these words, I remembered what I had 
heard from a certain man with whom I had tarried dur- 
ing the journey which I had lately made to the palace. 
Among other things, in talk with me, he said: “Have 
you heard nothing of the rumour about the holy Martyrs 
Marcellinus and Peter which 1s floating in these parts?”’ 
And when I answered that I knew nothing of it, he said, 
“Those who come from Saint Sebastian tell us that a 
certain priest of the Abbot Hildoin, who made the jour- 
ney to Rome with your notary, when they were on their 
way back, and in a certain place had lodgings in com- 
mon, and all your men were heavy with drink and 
sleep, and completely ignorant of what was going on, 
opened the caskets in which the bodies of the saints 
were enclosed, and took them out, and going his way 
carried them to Hildoin, and that they are now at Saint- 
Médard’s: but that a very little of the holy dust re- 
mained in your caskets, which was brought you by 
your notary.” Remembering these words, and compar- 
ing them with those which were spoken by Hildoin, I 
was moved by no small disturbance of mind; and par- 
ticularly for this reason, that I had as yet made no plan 
by which I could expel from the hearts of the beguiled 


multitude that abominable rumour spread abroad by 


32 


the wiles of the devil. Nevertheless I judged it best that 
I should request Hildoin to return me the very thing 
which, after that voluntary admission, he could not 
deny to have been taken from my caskets, and carried 
to him, and received by him. This I took care to do as 
soon as I possibly could; and although he was a little 
harder and slower than I could have wished in coming 
to agreement, he was nevertheless overcome by the 
earnestness of my prayers, and yielded to my insist- 
ence, though a little while before he had declared that, 
particularly in this matter, he would yield to the de- 
mands of nobody. 

Meanwhile, having sent letters to Ratleig and Lu- 
niso, — for they were in the place where I set down the 
bodies of the Martyrs,—I took care to inform them 
what manner of rumour concerning those same Martyrs 
was abroad through almost all Gaul; admonishing them 
to consider whether they could recall or remember any 
such incident in their journey, or anything like what 
Hildoin asserted concerning what his priest had done. 
Coming to me forthwith at the palace, they related a 
story extremely different from that which Hildoin told. 
For first they declared everything which that priest had 
told Hildoin to be false; and that after they left Rome 
no opportunity had been given either to that priest or 
to anybody else whatsoever by which he could have 
had a chance to commit a crime of such sort. But at the 
same time it was clear that this very thing had hap- 
pened to the holy ashes of the Martyrs, namely at 
Rome, in the house of Deusdona, through the greed of 


Luniso and the cunning of the aforesaid priest, at the 
time when the body of the blessed Marcellinus, re- 
moved from its tomb, was hidden in the house of Deus- 
dona; and this they declared the manner of the deed. 
That aforesaid priest of Hildoin, disappointed in the 
hope which he had conceived of obtaining the body of 
Saint Tiburtius, undertook, in order that he might not 
return completely empty-handed to his master, to ob- 
tain by deceit what he could not come by honestly. So 
approaching Luniso, for he knew him to be poor and 
therefore covetous, and offering him four pieces of gold 
and five of silver, he inveigled him into committing this 
piece of treachery. So, accepting the offered money, he 
opened the chest in which the body of the blessed Mar- 
cellinus had been placed and shut up by Deusdona, and 
gave that most good-for-nothing scoundrel full power 
to take from it what he chose, as he had hoped would be 
the case. And in that robbery he was not frugal; for he 
had taken away of the holy ashes of the blessed Martyr 
as much as a vessel having the measure of a pint and a 
half could hold. That the deed was done in manner, Lu- 
niso himself, who had plotted it with the aforesaid 
priest, averred, throwing himself at my feet, with tears 
and sobs. 

Then I, when the truth of the matter was discovered, 
ordered Ratleig and Luniso to go back thither from 
whence they were come. And thereafter, when I had 
talked with Hildoin, and an agreement had been made 
between us as to when the holy relics should be given 
‘back to me, I ordered two clerks of our household, 


34 


namely Hiltfrid and Filimar — the one a priest, the 
other a sub-deacon — to go to Soissons for the purpose 
of receiving them: sending by those same messengers 
to the place from which those same relics were to be 
borne away, in order that I might there be prayed for, 
pieces of gold to the number of a hundred. When they 
were come on Palm Sunday to the monastery of Saint- 
Médard, they tarried there three days; and having re- 
ceived that peerless treasure for which they had been 
sent, they returned, accompanied by two brothers of 
that same monastery, with all the speed they could, to 
the palace; the relics nevertheless they delivered not to 
me but to Hildoin. And he, receiving them, put them in 
his private chapel, to be kept until, after the manifold 
business of the feast of Easter was done, he should have 
spare time in which he could show me that which was 
_ to be returned before he returned it. And when, a week 
or more after holy Easter being past, the king had 
emerged from the palace for the purpose of hunting, 
Hildoin, according to what had been agreed between 
us, having taken up those relics from his oratory where 
they had been kept safe and borne them to the Church 
of the Holy Mother of God and there placed them on 
the altar, caused me to be fetched to receive them. 
Then, opening the coffer in which the relics were con- 
tained, he showed it to me, that I might see what it was 
that he was giving back to me and that I was receiving. 

Then, lifting that same coffer from the altar he 
placed it in my hands, and having offered suitable 
prayer, he took upon himself also the duty of him that 


oo 


leads a choir, and caused those of the clergy who were 
skilled in psalmody to chant an anthem befitting the 
praise of the Martyrs; and so singing he followed us, 
bearing off that priceless treasure, as far as the doors of 
the church. Thence in slow procession, with crosses and 
candles, we made our way, praising the mercy of God, 
to an oratory which had been built with unskilful hands 
in our house; and into it, for no other place was to be 
found there, we bore the holy relics. But in that proces- 
sion of ours, which I have said that we made from the 
church to our oratory, something miraculous hap- 
pened, which I think ought not to pass in silence. For 
when we were coming out of the church, and singing 
praise to our Lord God with loud voice, such abund- 
ance of a very sweet smell filled all that part of the city 
of Aix-la-Chapelle which looks westward from the 
church that almost all the inhabitants of that part of 
the city, and all those at the same time who for any 
reason or business had then betaken themselves to that 
part of the city were so divinely stirred by the fragrance 
that, leaving all the work they had in hand, they all 
made haste, running as fast as they could, first to the 
church, and then, as it were following a scent, to our 
oratory into which they had heard that these relics had 
been borne. So within our gates was a boundless con- 
course of people, giving utterance to joy and to wonder; 
and though a great part of them who had gathered to- 
gether knew not what it was that was happening, 
nevertheless with gladness and exceeding joy they gave 
praise together to the mercy of Almighty God. 


36 


But, after by the spread of fame it was noised abroad 
that the relics of the holy Martyr Marcellinus had been 
brought to that place, there gathered together, not 
only from the city of Aix-la~Chapelle itself, and neigh- 
bouring or adjacent towns, but also from places and vil- 
lages a good deal further away, such a constant and 
huge crowd that, except of evenings and at night, there 
was no easy access for us to that oratory, when we 
would celebrate divine service. The infirm were brought 
from all sides, and those who suffered from divers dis- 
orders were set down by their kinsfold and friends be- 
side the walls of the oratory. You could see there al- 
most all kinds of bodily affliction cured, in all sexes and 
ages, by the virtue which is of Christ the Lord, and by 
the merit of the most blessed Martyr. Sight was given 
to the blind, gait to the lame, hearing to the deaf, 
speech to the dumb; even paralytics and those de- 
prived of all strength of the body were brought thither 
by the hands of others, and made sound went back to 
their belongings on their own feet. 

When these things were carried by the reports of Hil- 
doin to the ears of the king, he first resolved that on re- 
turning to the palace he would make haste to our ora- 
tory, where these things were wrought, and there do 
reverence to the Martyr; but advised by the counsel of 
that same Hildoin not to do so, he directed that the rel- 
ics should be borne to the larger church, and when they 
were borne thither he did reverence to them with hum- 
ble prayer, and after the solemnities of the Mass had 
been celebrated he made offering to the blessed Mar- 


37 


tyrs, Marcellinus and Peter, of a certain manor, situ- 
ated near the river Aar, named Ludovesdorf, having 
fifteen farms and nine acres of vineyards. And the 
queen made offering of her girdle, made of goid and 
jewels, weighing three pounds. When these things were 
accomplished, the relics were carried back again to their 
proper place, that is to our oratory, and there they were 
for forty days or more than that, until the time when 
the Emperor, leaving the palace for the purpose of 
hunting, sought the forest, after his yearly custom. 
When this was done, we too, after making ready what- 
ever seemed needful for our progress, set out with those 
same relics from the town of Aix-la-Chapelle. Now at 
the very moment of our starting a certain old woman, 
very well known in the palace, of about eighty years, 
labouring under a contraction of the sinews, was cured 
in our very sight. And she, as we learned from her own 
statement, having been burdened with this disease for 
fifty years, had fulfilled the office of walking by creep- 
ing, painfully striving with knees and hands. 

So started on our journey, aided by the merits of the 
saints, we came, by the help of the Lord, on the six- 
teenth day to the village of Mulinheim, in which when 
we set out for court we had left the holy ashes of the 
blessed Martyrs. And in that journey how much joy 
and how much gladness was brought by the coming of 
those relics to the people gathered about our way I 
have no right to pass over in silence, and nevertheless it 
cannot be revealed in all its fulness by any manner of 
telling. Yet I must try to tell it, lest a thing tending 


38 


very greatly to the praise of God, should seem, as it 
were for idleness, to:be submerged 1n silence. And first 
indeed my mind stirs me to tell of what, when we came 
forth from the palace we remember ourselves to have 
seen, in the presence of many. There is a stream called 
Worm, having at the distance of about two thousand 
paces from the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle a bridge across 
it. Coming to this, in order that the multitude which 
had followed us to that point from the palace and now 
desired to go back might have a season of prayer, we 
halted for a little while. And there a certain man from 
among those who were praying, coming near to the rel- 
ics with another, and looking his companion in the face, 
said, ‘‘ For love and honour of this saint, I free thee from 
the debt for which thou knowest thou are beholden to 
me.” For he owed him, as the man himself admitted, 
half a pound of silver. And again, another man, leading 
to the relics a fellow whom he had taken by the hand, 
said “Thou didst kill my father, and therefore we have 
been at blood-feud; but now, for the love and honour of 
God and of this saint, putting aside all hatred, I wish to 
join and pledge faith with thee that from this time 
forth forever there shall be friendship between us: and 
may this Saint be witness of the love agreed upon by 
thee and me, and work vengeance against him who 
shall first attempt to break this peace.” 

And from this point the crowd which had started 
from the palace with us, after worshipping and kissing 
the holy relics, with many tears which from excess of 
rejoicing they could not keep back, returned home. 


39 


And with another great company which there met us, 
singing Kyrie e/etson without interruption, we went on 
our way to a place where we were joined in like manner 
by others hurrying towards us; and then the second 
great company, like unto the first, having made a 
prayer, returned again to their daily duties. And in this 
manner, day by day accompanied from the break of 
dawn even until dusk fell by crowds of people singing 
praise to Christ the Lord, we made our way from the 
palace of Arx-la~Chapelle even unto the aforesaid vil- 
lage of Mulinheim, the Lord prospering our journey. 
And there upon the altar behind which the casket con- 
taining the holy ashes of the martyrs had been placed 
we set down those relics in a jJewelled box; and there 
they stayed placed until, in the month of November, 
when we were making ready to go to the palace, we 
were warned in a vision that we should not leave that 
place before we had joined them once again to the body 
from which they had been borrowed. But how it was re- 
vealed that this ought to be done is not to be passed 
over in silence; because not only in a dream, as is usual, 
but also by certain signs and menaces it was made 
clear to those charged with the duty of keeping watch 
that the blessed Martyrs were entirely determined that 
in this matter their commands should be obeyed to the 
letter. 

There was one of the clerks who were appointed to 
keep watch in the church, by name Landolph, to whom 
the duty of striking the bell was then committed, and 
he had his bed near the eastern door of the church. 


40 


When, after the custom of vigils and matins, he had 
risen in his usual manner and had struck the bell, and 
the service being finished before daybreak, he wished 
again to sleep, he prostrated himself for the purpose 
of supplication before the holy ashes of the martyrs. 
There, as he avers, when he began to repeat the fiftieth 
Psalm,* he heard close to him on the pavement as it 
were the sound of the feet of a man walking hither and 
thither on both sides. And stricken with by no means 
small fear, he raised himself a little on his knees, and 
began to look about him in every direction, supposing 
that one of the poor, when the doors of the church were 
shut, had skulked in some corner. And when he per- 
ceived that none other than he himself was within the 
walls of the church he disposed himself again for prayer, 
_ and started to recite the psalm he had begun before; 
but, before he could finish a single verse of it, the jew- 
elled box which had been placed on the altar, contain- 
ing the holy relics of the blessed Marcellinus, sounded 
so loud with a sudden ringing that you would have 
thought it had been shivered, as it were by the blow 
of a hammer. Two doors of the church also, that is the 
Western and the Southern, as 1f some one were shaking 
and pounding them, sounded in like manner: 
Frightened and greatly perplexed by these things, for 
he had no manner of notion what he ought to do, he 
rose from the altar and threw himself in great fear on 
his bed; and overcome of a sudden by sleep, he saw a 


1. Deus Deorum, etc.— “The Lord, even the most mighty God, hath 
spoken” are the first words of it in the Anglican Psalter. 


4l 


certain man, by countenance unknown to him, stand- | 
ing by his side, who addressed him in some such words 
as these: “Is it true,” he asked, “that Eginhard wishes 
to make such haste to the palace that before he starts 
he will not put back the relics of Saint Marcellinus, 
which he has brought here, in the place from which 
they were taken away?” — And when he answered 
that he knew nothing of this matter — “Arise,” he 
said, “at first dawn, and tell him by order of the Mar- 
tyrs not to dare go from hence or start in any direction 
until he has restored those relics to their place.”’ He sat 
up wide awake, and was careful to impart to me, when 
he could come to me quickest, this which he had been 
bidden to tell. And I, thinking that in business of this 
kind nothing should be done slothfully, and indeed 
judging that what was commanded ought to be carried 
out without any intervention of delay, gave orders on 
that very day to make ready those things which seemed _ 
needful for the purpose; and next day, with the most 
anxious pains, I carefully joined those relics once again 
to the body from which they had been taken away. 
How grateful this deed was to the most blessed Martyrs 
was proved by the plain witness of the miracle which 
ensued. For the next night, when we were sitting in the 
church for the solemn office of Matins, a certain old 
man, deprived of the use of his legs, came in to prayer, 
painfully creeping with his hands and knees. In the 
presence of us all, by the strength of God and the merits 
of the most blessed Martyrs, he was so perfectly cured, 
at the very hour when he came in, that for walking he 


42 


no further needed the support of a crutch. And he 
declared as well that he had been deaf for five succes- 
sive years, and that together with the use of his feet 
hearing had been restored to him. And so, when all 
these things were come to pass, I set out, as 
I have said above I wished to do, for 
court, there to pass the winter, 
pondering many things 
in my mind. 


Chapter 4. 


MIRACLES WROUGHT FOR THE DEAF AND 
DUMB, THE DISTORTED AND OTHER SUF- 
FERERS, AT MULINHEIM.2® BEER CHANGED 
TO WINE. 2® A TORCH LIGHTED OF ITS OWN 
ACCORD.: @22 Hs 





BOUT to write now of the cures and miracles 
which the most blessed Martyrs of Christ, 
Marcellinus and Peter, wrought in sundry 
places, after their most holy bodies had been 

carried from Rome into France, —or rather which, 
through their blessed merits and loving prayers, the 
king of martyrs himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, deigned 
to perform, — I have thought it needful to set down, in 
a short preface, that the greater part of those things 
which I have made ready to write about was called to 
my attention by the reports of others. That I might put 
confidence in them, however, I was so firmly persuaded 
by the things which I myself saw and knew to have oc- 
curred in my presence that without the slightest scruple 
of doubt I could believe to be true what was said by 
those who bore witness that they had seen these things, 
even though of the persons from whom I heard it I 
might have either little or no knowledge up to that 
time. But of all these things it seems to me that those 


1. Here begins Book III in the Surian edition. 


44. 


should first be written down which occurred and were 
seen by myself in that place to which those same most 
blessed Martyrs directed that their most holy ashes 
should be translated. Then those things which were 
done in the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, under the very 
eyes of the court, are to be recorded. Then, I thought, 
should be put down the works which were wrought in 
divers places to which, at the request of religious men 
and by my assistance, the holy relics of those saints 
were carried; so that, following this order of narration, 
nothing should be omitted of all the signs and miracles 
which could possibly have come to the notice of our 
petty faculties. And so, now that the preface is finished, 
let us set forth the miracles, themselves the true object 
of our discourse. 

After the holy bodies of the most blessed Martyrs, as 
has already been set forth in the former books, at their 
own bidding but in a manner which we ourselves car- 
ried out, had been borne, with great rejoicing of the 
faithful peoples, to the place in which they now rest, 
and when the solemnities of the Mass had been cele- 
brated in the open air, they had been carried by the 
hands of priests, of whom at that time no small number 
was there gathered together, and the bier on which 
they were borne had been set down near the altar, and 
again another service was there beginning to be cele- 
brated, of a sudden a certain youth, afflicted with a 
melting of the kidneys and therefore bent and hobbling 
on crutches, broke forth from the midst of the crowd of 
people there standing about, and desiring to bow down 


45 


in worship fell down upon his knees; but in a marvel- © 
lous manner, as if some one had plucked or rather 
dragged him back, he fell face up and for a very long 
time lay like unto one asleep. Then, as though awaken- 
ing, he lifted himself up to a sitting posture; and next, 
after a very little while, he stood up, no one helping 
him, and standing on his feet in the midst of the crowd 
swirling about him, giving thanks together with others 
for restored health, he joined in the praises of the mercy 
of God. He told us, in answer to questions, that he had 
come thither with others of the poor and pilgrims from 
the Portian country, and that he was called Daniel. At 
about the same hour, I may say at the very same mo- 
ment, at which within the church and before the altar 
itself he of whom we have now spoken had by the 
strength of Christ and the intercession of the Martyrs 
recovered soundness of body, a certain old woman 
stricken with the palsy, and deprived of the use of al- — 
most all her limbs, lying outside the doors of the church, 
called upon the Martyrs to help her; and by and by, in 
plain sight of all who were about her, she began to be 
shaken by movements of the entrails, like unto sea- 
sickness, and thereafter to cast forth in vomiting a 
great abundance of phlegm and bile. Having done this, 
and sipped a very little cold water, she asked that she 
should be lifted up from the place where she was lying, 
and hobbling with a crutch she went into the church, 
and when she had worshipped the Martyrs and recoy- 
ered the strength of her limbs, she went back on foot to 
where she belonged. 


46 


In the meantime a certain man, by name Willibert, 
who had a house not far from the church in which the 
bodies of the blessed Martyrs now rest, approached the 
bier, among others who were come together to show 
reverence for the saints, and offered up, in the guise of a 
gift, forty pieces of silver. And when he was asked by us 
who he was, and what the offering of this gift meant, he 
answered that a few days before he had been seized 
with a very great weakness of body, and that he had 
sunk to a point where, despaired of by all who had seen 
him, he had been exhorted at once to dispose of all his 
goods for the benefit of his soul; and that he had done 
so. And when he had arranged to what holy places 
everything he had should be given, one of his servants 
lamented with loud groans that they had managed mat- 
ters rashly and negligently, in that none of his property 
had been given to the saints then just coming from 
Rome. And so those about him fell to asking one an- 
other whether they knew of any possession left him 
which could be sent to the Martyrs. Now at that time 
they were in Michilinstadt, and it had not yet been 
made clear by any signs that they were to go on from 
thence. And when some one answered and said that of 
all his goods only one pig remained, and that they had 
not settled to whom it should be given, he rejoiced and 
gave orders that it should be sold and that after his 
death the price of it should be sent to supply candles for 
the Martyrs. When he had uttered these words he says 
that he felt so sudden a relief from his malady that 
straightway, all pain having departed, he had longing 


47 


to eat, and having taken food he recovered strength so ~ 
quickly that the next day he was able with great ease 
to go about all the business and work which the habit 
of his affairs demanded. So after this the pig had been 
sold, and this was the price of 1t, which according to his 
vow he was offering to the blessed Martyrs. 

The rest of the wonders and miracles which God 
wrought through them for the good of men, although 
the order in which they are related I think of no im- 
portance, I have determined to describe as they occur 
to memory; for in telling of them, the chief thing to 
consider is what came to pass and why, rather than 
when. 

Now when the relics of the blessed Martyrs had been 
placed with solemn rites in that same church, where ac- 
cording to the custom of our established religion the 
holy offices of the Mass are daily celebrated, it hap- 
pened that one day, when divine service was in pro- 
gress, and we had taken our place in the upper parts of 
the church, looking down at the people gathered to- 
gether below under our eyes, a certain half-naked clerk, 
who had come among others to that service, and was 
standing in the midst of the crowd, of a sudden fell 
down so very heavily that for a long time he lay on the 
pavement like one dead. And when some of those about 
him tried to lift him and to stand him up, for he was 
hard of breathing, so great a burst of blood came from 
his mouth and his nostrils that the whole front part of 
his body — that is, his breast and his belly down to the 


garment which covered his privy parts — was covered 


48 


with the outflow. When they had brought water to re- 
fresh him, he recovered his strength and could speak 
clearly. But when he was afterwards questioned by us, 
he declared that from infancy up to that moment he 
had been unable to hear anything or to speak. His coun- 
try, he said, was Britain and himself of the nation of the 
English; for the purpose of being with his mother, who 
was going on a pilgrimage to Rome, he had started on a 
journey and among other pilgrims, who wished to go to- 
gether to Rome, he had come to that place, but when 
his companions went on he had stayed there; and the 
day on which he was made whole was the seventh from 
that when he had reached the place. And when we 
asked him his name, he answered that he was com- 
pletely ignorant of his name, for the reason that from 
the time when he became deaf he had never heard his 
name. - 

A few days afterwards, when after the customary 
manner we were gathered together in the church for the 
vespers service, a certain deaf and dumb girl, whom her 
father and her brother, to the end that she should seek 
to be made sound, had led from the country of the Be- 
turiges through many places where saints abide, and at 
last brought thither had made to stand among others in 
that same church, was of a sudden stirred as it were by 
a madness; she struck together as hard as she could the 
tablets by the noise of which she was wont to seek alms, 
and cast herself raving among the people gathered in 
front of her. Then running to the left-hand wall of the 
church, and leaping up three feet or more as if she 


49 


would climb it, she fell down on her back; and when she 
had lain there a little while, far more like one dead than 
one sleeping, and was sprinkled almost all over by an 
issue of blood which gushed without stint from her 
mouth and nostrils, she was lifted up by those standing 
about her and carried into the middle of the church. 
And when she had lain there also for a little while she 
sat up, like one awakened from deep sleep; and then, 
stretching out her hands to those who were standing 
about her, she begged them with what movements of 
the head were in her power that she should be raised to 
her feet. Being raised up she was led to the altar. When 
she saw Ratleig there, standing among the other clergy- 
men who were together near the altar, and looking at 
her, she straightway burst forth with these words: 
“Thou art Ratleig,” she said. “Thou,” she said, “art 
called by this name. Thou art the servant of these 
saints.’’ And when he asked her whence she knew this, 
or who had told her his name: “These very saints,”’ she 
said, “who are here at rest, came to me when I lay like 
one sleeping, and put their fingers into my ears and 
said to me: “When thou shalt have been raised up, and 
shalt make thy way to the altar, know that the young 
clergyman whom thou shalt see standing before thee 
and looking upon thee is called Ratleig; and he is our 
servant, for it is he that brought our bodies to this 
place.’” And in truth it was so. For he was the very 
man of whom we recorded in the first book that we had 
sent him to Rome for the purpose of receiving the relics 
of the saints from a certain deacon and bringing them 


50 


back to us. And this girl, in this wise and in our pres- 
ence, through the virtue of the most blessed Martyrs, 
was freed from the spirit of evil and restored to the full 
soundness of her body; and her father and brother, who 
had brought her thither, bore witness that from the 
time of her birth she had been deaf and dumb. 

Now though I myself did not see the miracle which I 
am about to relate, I can believe the words of those by 
whose account it came to no less than mine own eyes; 
so, once for all, and without a qualm of doubt, I have 
decided to set it down not as if I had heard of it but as 
if | myself had seen it. 

Certain merchants of the city of Mainz, who were ac- 
customed to buy grain in the upper parts of Germany 
and to bring it to their city by the river Main, brought 
_ to the church of the blessed Martyrs a certain blind 
man, of the nation of the Aquitanians, by name Au- 
brey, whom they had taken aboard their boat, at his 
own request, for the purpose of deserving reward from 
God. When he disembarked there, and was received as 
guest in the house of the guardian of the church, he 
tarried there seven days or more. For besides blindness, 
which seemed natural to him for the reason that he had 
no eyes, he had a dreadful and unsightly infirmity of 
the whole body. For there was a great trembling of all 
his limbs which shook him in so troublous a manner 
that he was wholly unable to convey food to his mouth 
with his own hands. On a certain day, when he was ly- 
ing fast asleep in the forenoon, at the house where he 
abode, he saw in his sleep a certain man come up to him 


SI 


and urge him to rise without delay and make haste to 
church; saying that the time was come when through 
the virtue of the Saints he ought to be freed from that 
pitiable suffering. Awakened, and led to the church, he 
sat down on a certain stone, in front of the gate. At that 
time within the church divine service was going on, as 
is the custom, and when the prayers were finished 
which precede the holy reading of the gospel, it began 
to be read. When hardly two verses had been read 
through, of a sudden, as if struck by a blow, that shak- 
ing man cried out very loud, saying: “Help me, Saint 
Marcellinus!”’ Now although all who were in church 
were no little disturbed by this noise, the greater part 
by reason of their respect for the reading of the gospel 
remained where they were, but many ran out to see 
what was the cause of this crying out; and, as they later 
bore witness, they found the man aforesaid, in the place 
where he had been sitting, lying stretched out and flat 
on his back, and his chin and breast were flooded with 
blood gushing from his nostrils. And when he was stood 
up by them, and had refreshed himself by sipping a 
very little cold water, he told them that it had seemed 
to him, when he had sent forth that cry, that some one 
had struck him a blow on the head, and so he had im- 
plored the help of the blessed Martyr. But it seems that 
this blow was so good for him that from the very mo- 
ment no more trace of that unsightly trembling ap- 
peared in his body. Afterwards he stayed almost two 
years in that very place, and, as he himself bore wit- 
ness, there was no night in these two years in which he 


§2 


did not see in dreams those Martyrs who had made him 
whole; and he heard from them many things which he 
was bidden to tell others; of which we now see many 
fulfilled which he then foretold should come to pass. 
A few days afterward, we saw another man, afflicted 
with a similar disorder, cured in the same church by the 
merits of the same Saints in no dissimilar manner. For 
one night, when matins was celebrating, and we were 
seated in the church to hear the readings of divine law, 
a certain man entered in the dress of a clerk, hobbling 
on a crutch, and with limbs so shaking that he could 
hardly control his tottering footsteps. And when he 
leaned against the wall to pray he cried out with a loud 
voice, and thereupon fell face downward; and after a 
little time had intervened he rose up sound of that dis- 
order by which he had been possessed. And when we 
asked him if at the time when he recovered health any- 
thing had appeared to him besides what we all could 
see, he said that a little before he had come into the 
church he went for purposes of prayer to the old church 
— which was to the westward of the new church, where 
the Martyrs then lay at rest, and a little way off; and 
that, as he found it closed, he prayed before the doors. 
Then, when he stood up, and started to go to the 
church, he had seen a certain clergyman, with vener- 
able white hair, robed in a white stole, going before him 
thither where he wished to go. And, as he himself avers, 
he followed him to the door of the church. When they 
both arrived there, he who had been ahead stood aside, 
pressing himself against the left-hand door post, as if he 


53 


wished that he whom he had proceeded for a little 
while should enter first; and that when he had hesitated 
to enter before him, he had ordered him to do so, by a 
nod of the head. And when he had entered, and bowed 
himself down in prayer, he had stood behind his back, 
and with his fist had struck him on the back of the neck 
and knocked him down, and thereupon had vanished. 
But no other except him who was made sound could see 
him. : 
At about the same time, when having risen in the 
night we went to the church, we found before the gates 
of the church a certain boy lying in the porch, so piti- 
ably drawn together that his knees touched his chin. 
And he asked one of those who followed us to carry him 
into the church; and he, moved by pity, lifted him up 
and set him down in the church, near the chancel. And 
of a sudden he was overcome by a flood of sleep, there 
where he lay; and he did not fully awake until, by the 
intercessions of the Saints, he had been so perfectly 
cured of that pitiable distortion that awakening of his 
own accord he rose up from the place where he had been 
carried in the arms of another, and made his way to the 
altar, that he might give thanks to God. But when day- 
light shone forth and we could speak with him, he 
stated that three times, before the bell of the church 
sounded, he had been accosted by a certain clergyman, 
to him unknown, and exhorted to let nothing prevent 
him from coming to church at the time of the Matins 
service. And that he had done so, and then, as we saw, 
had recovered, while asleep in the church, complete 


54 


soundness of his body. And he looked as if he were 
about fifteen years old. 

Likewise we saw another cured in the same place, in 
like manner, and in about the same time — not a boy, 
as this had been, but a very old and feeble man. We 
found him one night when we came to the door of the 
church by reason of the celebration of Matins, at the 
very threshold. Hobbling on his knees, he supported 
himself on two crutches, and thus by his very slow 
movement delayed our passing in. And when we were 
standing behind his back, brought to pause by the 
slowness of his movement, such a fragrance of the 
sweetest savour coming forth from the church filled our 
nostrils that it surpassed in excellency any mingling of 
all spices and thymes ever made by art. He entered at 
last, and in our presence lay him down close to the 
chancel, as if about to sleep. We also entered, took our 
places, and together with others chanted, after the ac- 
customed manner, the psalms which were reciting. But 
when the first reading began, we heard that same old 
man groan, and like one who had a blow cry out for 
aid; and then, after a little space of time, we saw him 
rise to a sitting posture, and presently, having taken up 
the crutches with which he was accustomed to direct 
his steps, stand up on his feet. And we saw only these 
things. But he declared that it had seemed to him that, 
as he lay there, two men as it were had laid hold of him, 
the one by shoulders and arms, the other by knees and 
feet, and thus by pulling had stretched out the sinews 
which had been drawn together. And since besides this 


55 


shortening of sinews he averred that he had been 
troubled with deafness, he declared that when he had 
lifted himself up to a sitting posture there had come 
upon his head as it were the blow of a fist hitting very 
hard; and that at the same time he had heard the voice 
of one bidding that thenceforth he should hear. This 
old man, made sound in this manner, declared that he 
came from the country of the Helvetians which is now 
called Argovia, and that he was of the nation of the 
Germans. 

Another man, but afflicted with a like contraction of 
the sinews, who said that he came from the city of 
Liége, where Saint Lambert rests in the body, one Sun- 
day night, after the Matins service was finished and we 
had returned from church, when for the benefit of those 
who were come from afar and needed to hurry back to 
their daily duties, a priest was celebrating in due man- 
ner the sacrament of the Host of Salvation, fell down, in 
the presence of all who were there, on the pavement, and 
there lay, for a little space of time, as if fast asleep; 
then, like one roused from slumber, he stood up, no- 
body giving him help. And when one of those about him 
picked up the crutches which he had hitherto been ac- 
customed to use, and which, when he fell, had slipped 
from his hands and lay a little way off, and held them 
out to him, he refused them, saying: “May I never 
touch those things again!”’ So, cured in this manner, he 
went back on foot to his home, from which he had 
made his way to the threshold of the Martyrs rather 
creeping than walking. 


56 


Not long afterwards, in the month of November, 
when, in accordance with my custom of passing the 
winter at the palace, I had made ready to go to court; 
and having started on the journey, had crossed the 
river Rhine, and had stopped to tarry at a royal manor 
which has the name of Zinrich, it happened that after 
supper, which had engaged a certain part of the night, 
I betook myself with friends of mine to the retirement 
of a chamber where I was to sleep. Suddenly the serv- 
ant who was accustomed to provide us with drink came 
in, as if he had some news to tell. Looking at him, I 
asked, “What do you wish to tell us? For, as I perceive 
you have something, I know not what, which you wish 
to bring to our attention.” Then he said, “Two marvels 
have just been wrought in our presence, which I come 
to describe to you.’ And when I ordered him to say . 
whatever he would, “Just now,” he said, “when you 
got up from supper and entered this chamber, I went 
down with my fellow-servants to the cellar which 1s un- 
der the room where you supped. And there, when we 
began to serve out beer to the servants who were come 
for it, a boy sent by one of our fellow-servants came in, 
with a flagon in his hand which he asked loudly to be 
filled for him. When it was filled, he also requested that 
a little bit of that same beer should be given him to 
drink. It was given him in a can which by chance stood 
empty on the cask in which the beer was. But when to 
drink it he put it to his lips, he cried out, in great as- 
tonishment, that this was wine, not beer. And when he 


who had filled his flagon, and had drawn the draught 
SF 


which had been given him from the same tap, began to 
accuse him of lying — ‘Take it,’ he said, ‘and taste it; 
and then you will make sure that I have spoken not a 
- lie but the truth.’ He took it and tasted it, and declared 
that to him the savour was more like wine than beer. 
Then a third and a fourth, and the rest who were pres- 
ent there, testing and marvelling one by one, drank up 
all that was in the can. And as many as tasted it out of 
the can bore witness that it had the savour of unmixed 
wine, not of beer. 

“Just then, when they were amazed and perplexed 
by their wonder at this marvel, it happened that a 
taper, whose light they used there, and which shone 
fastened to the wall hard by the cask, fell, though no- 
body touched it, down to the pavement, wet with 
damp; and there was so quenched that not even the 
smallest spark remained alive in it. And one of them, © 
snatching it up, ran to the door; but much troubled by 
the dreadfulness of the dark, before he got out, though 
he was on the very threshold, cried out: “Holy Martyrs 
Marcellinus and Peter help us!’ And at that appeal, the 
taper, which he held in his hand, was lighted.’”’—When 
I heard these things I presently, as was fitting, spoke 
words of praise and gave thanks to Almighty God, who 
always and everywhere glorifies his saints, and deigned 
to gladden with such manifestation of their powers us 
their servants, who then had the holy relics of them 
with us. But him who had brought me the news I bade, 
when the story was finished, to go back to his abode. 
And then, when [ had laid me down in bed to sleep, I 


58 


began to turn many things over in my mind and to 
wonder what that changing of beer into wine, that is of 
the worse drink into the better could mean or signify; 
and why a miracle of this kind had taken place just 
there, that is in a royal residence, and not rather in the 
place where the most holy bodies of the blessed Martyrs 
who through the power of Christ had worked their 
wonders were laid hidden. But although by long and 
careful pondering I could come to no sure answer to 
this questioning, I nevertheless felt sure, and shall al- 
ways feel sure, that the holy power on high, through 
which these miracles and others of this kind are 
believed to be wrought, never allows any 
thing to happen or to be done without 
good reason among the creatures 
whom I doubt not to be- 
long to his providence 
and government. 


Chapter 5: 


OTHER MIRACLES DONE AT MULINHEIM; 
THE DEAF AND DUMB, THE PALSIED, AND 
THE DERANGED CURED. 2® A LIGHT VOUCH- 
SAFED TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT. 2® A LITTLE 
BOOK OFFERED THE EMPEROR 2==e—=eee 


O, having started on my journey, as I said 
above, I proceeded to court. For at that time 
the Emperor Louis, who was abiding at the pal- 
ace in Aix-la~-Chapelle, had given orders that 

an assembly of lords should take place about mid-win- 
ter; where among others I too was commanded to be 
present, so ] was compelled to be away from the neigh- _ 
bourhood of the blessed Martyrs, and made a far from 
joyful stay at the palace. Now after exactly a month 
since I arrived there was finished I sent one of our fol- 
lowers, by name Ellenhard, ordering him to hurry with 
all the speed he could to the door of the blessed Mar- 
tyrs, and having visited the brothers whom when I set 
out I had sent thither to celebrate divine service, and 
having carefully inquired into all things which had hap- 
pened there, to come back to us at once. When he ar- 
rived there, he tarried three days. But on the fourth, 
when he was making ready to return to us, that blind 
man, by name Aubrey, of whom we made mention 
above, detained him when he was about to start; saying 


60 


that he should not begin his journey before he had seen 
such a wonder wrought as when told me would make 
me glad with exceeding great rejoicing. He added also 
that the most blessed Martyrs had appeared to him 
while asleep the night before, and had given him orders 
that he seek out a certain poor man, by name Gisalbert, 
bowed down by a very large hump of the back, and 
thereby bent forward and hobbling on short crutches; 
and when he was found that he bring him, at the time 
of Matins service, to the chamber which is above the 
porch of the church, close by the relics which were 
there: to the end that there, by the merits and power of 
the saints of whom the relics were, he might be freed 
from that deformity of a hump and from the incon- 
venience of his bowing down. He yielded to the request, 
and put off till next day the journey on which he had 
made ready to start. And that blind man, searching for 
the poor man he had been ordered to seek, found him; 
and, as he had been commanded, placed him in the up- 
per parts of the church, near the aforesaid relics, at the 
time of the matins service. Now those relics, a fact we 
did not yet know, were of the blessed martyr Martus, 
and of his wife and sons, that is Martha, Audifax and 
Habakkuk. For they also had been brought to us to- 
gether with the bodies of Saint Marcellinus and Saint 
Peter, and in the same chest. But he who brought them 
knew not of whom the relics were; for he who had sent 
them to me had promised that he would come to me, 
and tell me with his own lips the names of the saints of 
whom these were the relics: which later came to pass. 


61 


But the poor man who had been placed beside them by 
the blind man aforesaid, when the second lesson of the 
night service was reading after the usual manner, ut- 
tered a loud cry, striking with no small fear them that 
heard. And when some of the clergy, together with him 
who had been bidden watch there, ran to him, they 
found him face downward and stretched out before the 
altar, and the pavement which was beneath his mouth 
wet with a great deal of blood. Lifting him up, and re- 
freshing him with water brought thither, they led him 
to the lower parts of the church, that all might give 
thanks, for he was sound, and stood erect, nor was any 
trace left of that bowing burden like unto that of a 
camel. And when this miracle was wrought in this 
manner, he whom I had sent thither came back to 
me as fast as he possibly could, and when he told me 
what he had seen he filled me with great gladness and © 
rejoicing. 

Not long afterwards Ratleig, who, as we have set 
forth in the former books, brought the holy ashes of the 
Martyrs from Rome, arrived, having been bidden, as he 
said, to bring me a little book, containing a good many 
headings; and the reason of it he said was like this: 
that blind man of whom we have just made mention 
had advised on the authority of the Martyrs that those 
headings should be written down and brought me, and 
he said that I should take them and offer them to the 
Emperor, to read. I took the little book from him and 
read it, and when it was corrected and written down 
anew, I offered it, as he had ordered, to the Emperor. 


62 


And he also took it and read it: but of the things which 
by this little book he was ordered or advised to do he 
took the trouble to accomplish very few. Now what 
those headings contained, or what they recommended 
to be done or what left undone by him, may better be 
set forth in another place than this. Nevertheless I 
think that the manner in which it was revealed and or- 
dered that the little book ought to be made and to be 
given the King not only should not be passed over but 
should be written down as openly and as clearly as it 
can be. 

And Ratleig said that these things came about in 
this way. ““A few days ago,” he said, ““when we came 
together in church as is the manner to celebrate the 
_ night service, that blind man whom you know came to 
me, begging that I step aside with him into a more se- 
cret place. I did as he wished, and with him entered the 
cell where I am accustomed to sleep. Then, he spoke 
first, saying ‘“To-night, a little before we were awak- 
ened by the sounding of the bells, there appeared to me 
in a vision a certain man, with venerable white hair, 
clothed in a white garment, holding in his hand a golden 
wand, and he spoke to me in these words: “See, Au- 
' brey,” he said, “that you fully understand all that I 
shall say to you, and hold it so fast in memory that you 
can also make it clear to others, who are to write it 
down. For it is my will that these things be written 
down and shown by your master to Louis, the Emperor 
that he may read them. For truly it 1s very necessary 
that this should be not only known but also done by the 


63 


prince to whose realm those same Martyrs are come by 
the order of God.” 

“Thereupon beginning he dictated one after another 
a dozen or more headings; and he bade me that I should 
tell and explain them one by one to you and to four 
others whom I will name to you; and that after this you 
should make a little book of them and carry it to your 
master, who now abides in the palace; and that you 
should bid him, on the authority of the Martyrs, to pre- 
sent it as soon as he possibly can to the Emperor. 
_ Thereafter he added, “‘ Do you know who I am, who bid 
you do these things.’’ Then without hesitation I an- 
swered that he was Saint Marcellinus. And he said unto 
me: “It is not as you suppose, but I am Gabriel, the 
archangel; and I have taken on the shape and form of 
Marcellinus because the Lord God has committed to 
me the charge of all things and matters concerning ~ 
these same Martyrs; and I am now come to tell you 
what I have bidden you write down, because it is the 
will of God that those things shall be brought on their 
authority, without the intrusion of delays, to the knowl- 
edge of the king. And do you, as I have bidden you, go 
at the first gleam of dawn after the Matins service is 
over, and tell what you have heard to those to whom I 
have ordered you to tell it.” — Then I said, “There is 
no one who will believe that an angel has spoken to me, 
or has ordered me to bear these tidings.”’ And he an- 
swered and said: “It will not be so; but I will give you 
a power which you shall exercise in their presence: and 
when they have seen this they will have no more doubt 


64 


concerning the things which you relate to them by my 
command. So therefore it is my will that you ask Rat- 
leig to put before you two new candles which were 
never yet lighted; and taking one in the right hand and 
the other in the left go stand before the altar; and when 
you have finished telling all the things which I have 
bidden thee, tell those who hear them that by this sign 
they may believe these things which you have spoken 
to be true and ordered by the angel of God, that is, if 
the candles in your hands shall be lighted when they are 
looking on, without the bringing of fire which the eye 
can see.”’”—When all this had come to pass, the little 
book was written, and brought to me, and by me of- 
fered to the King, and also by him received and read 
through. So it has appeared right to me to make men- 
tion of this little book among the other miracles; for on 
the occasion when it was ordered to be written that 
marvellous and unprecedented lighting of candles oc- 
curred which the Angel who lighted them declared 
should be accomplished through the merits of the 
blessed Martyrs. 

At almost the very time when Ratleig went back 
from us to the church of the Martyrs, another little 
book was brought us from thence, containing the words 
and arguments of a certain demon who called himself 
Wiggon. These were uttered by him in the presence of 
many witnesses before the altar, near which the holy 
ashes of the Martyrs repose, in answer to the questions 
of a priest who had read a service of exorcism over one 
whom he possessed: and it happened in this manner. 


65 


There is a manor in the country of Niedgau called Hecg- 
stat, belonging to the monastery of Saint Nazartus, from 
which a certain girl, of about sixteen years, possessed 
by that wandering spirit, was brought by her parents to 
the church of the Martyrs. And when she was come be- 
fore the tomb containing the holy bodies, and the priest 
had read above her head the words of exorcism, after 
the proper manner, and thereafter began to question 
the demon as to how and when he had entered into her, 
he answered the priest not in the barbarous tongue 
which was all the girl knew but in the speech of Rome. 
And when the priest was struck with wonder and asked 
whence came knowledge of the Latin tongue, when the 
girl’s parents, who were there present, were completely 
ignorant of discourse after this manner, the demon an- 
swered and said “‘ You have never seen any of my kin.” 
Then the priest said ‘Who then art thou and whence, 
if these be not thy kinsfolk?”’ 

And the demon said, speaking with the lips of the 
girl, “I am an officer and a disciple of Satan, and for a 
very long time I was porter of Hell; but now for some 
years, with eleven of my comrades, I have ravaged the 
kingdom of the Franks. Grain .and wine, and all the 
other fruits which spring from the earth for the use of 
men we plagued and ruined; we killed flocks and herds 
with murrain, we let loose plague and pestilence among 
men themselves; and all the troubles and the evils 
which they now have long suffered according to their 
deserts, have fallen upon them, have been cast upon 
them by what we did.” And when the priest asked him 


66 


for what reason a power of this kind had been granted 
him, “By reason of the perverseness,”’ he said, “‘of this 
people, and of the manifold sins of those who are set up 
to rule over them. For they love profits and not justice, 
and they fear man more than God, and they oppress the 
poor, they will not listen to widows and orphans crying 
out to them for aid, and they do justice to none except 
for pay. Besides these there are many and almost num- 
berless other sins which are daily committed both by 
the people themselves and by their rulers; such as per- 
jury, drunkenness, adultery, murder, theft, rapine 
which no one forbids, and when they are committed 
there is none who punishes them. They that are most in 
power serve like slaves for base profits; and they abuse 
the higher place, which they received that they might 
justly rule their subjects, giving themselves up to pride 
and vain glory; hatred and malice they cherish not 
against them that are far off but against their neigh- 
bours and those with whom they are allied; friend hath 
no faith in friend, brother hates brother, and the father 
loves not the son. There are few who faithfully and de- 
voutly pay tithes, fewer still who give alms; and this 
because they deem lost to themselves whatever they 
are bidden give to God or to the poor. They do not fear 
to have short measures and false weights, against the 
command of God; they try to get the better of one an- 
other by fraud; they do not blush to bear false witness; 
they do not keep Sundays and Feast Days, but then, 
just as on other days, they work as their fancy bids 
them. By reason of these things and many more which 


67 


God has either bidden men do or forbidden them to do, 
and because this people by disobeying His commands 
is guilty of contumacy, we have been allowed, nay or- 
dered, to do those things among men which I have 
named above, one by one, so that they may suffer the 
deserts of their faithlessness. For those are faithless and 
lying who take no pains to keep the promises they have 
made in baptism.”’ All these things the demon spoke in 
Latin through the lips of the girl who knew none. 
And when the priest began to command that he come 
forth from her; “I will come forth,” he said, “not by 
reason of your command, but by reason of the power of 
the Saints, who will not suffer me to stay in her any 
longer.” With these words he cast the girl down on the 
pavement, and made her lie there for a little while, face 
down, like one asleep. But a little while after, when he © 
had betaken himself away, the girl, as if waking from a 
slumber, by the power of Christ and the merits of the 
blessed Martyrs, rose up sound, and all who were there 
saw her and marvelled, and after the demon was cast 
out of her she could not speak Latin; so that it is plainly 
evident that not she but the demon through her lips 
had spoken it. Alas and weladay! To what a pitiful 
depth have our times fallen when not good men but evil 
spirits are our teachers; and the quickeners of our vices 
and the tempters of our crimes warn us for our good. 
At about the same time a certain nun, by name 
Maretrude, from the country of Wetereiba, had been so 
mightily stricken for ten years by the dreadful disease of ~ 
palsy that for all that time she could use hardly any 


68 


part of her body for human needs; and her kinsfolk had 
no more hope for her, for they had carried her to every 
holy place to which they could manage to go. But 
nevertheless when she was brought by them to the 
church of the Martyrs, and at the time of the night ser- 
vice by thechancel, through the merits and mediation of 
those Saints she was given back her longed-for health 
without delay, and so fully and perfectly that recover- 
ing the strength of all her limbs she who had been borne 
thither on a litter returned home on foot. But when she 
came near home, in the course of her journey, she was 
seized with the same disorder from which she had re- 
joiced to be freed. So repenting of her return, she 
begged to be taken back to the threshold of the mar- 
tyrs. And she was hardly brought back when without 
delay she received again the soundness which she had 
lost by departing. So she made a vow that she would 
never again willingly depart from where honour was 
done the bodies of the Saints, and she built herself a lit- 
tle cell, so that she could dwell not far from the church, 
and thenceforth, religiously devoted to the service of 
the Martyrs, she abode there most prayerfully. 

It also appears that another woman, not much later, 
was freed by the same blessed Martyrs from a very 
troublous disorder. This fact is known to have been ac- 
complished as follows: In the country of Niedgau there 
is an estate called Urselle which is distant from the 
church of the Martyrs by the space of about six leagues. 
At this place a certain woman, when she waked from 
sleep early and sat up in her bed, and after the manner 


69 


of those rousing themselves from slumber stretched her 
self to shake off sloth by extending her arms and by fre- 
quent yawns, opened her mouth a little wider than she 
ought to have done, and the joints of her jaws near the 
ears slipping out of place, she gaped and grinned im- 
movably; and unable to shut her mouth, and looking 
more like a mask than a human being she was afflicted 
with the penalty of that imprudent yawn. When she 
brought this to the notice of the poor women who lived 
on the same estate, they came running in and tried to 
help her suffering with herbs and silly incantations. 
But this vain and superstitious presumption had no ef- 
fect; and whatever unskilled hands did to help or cure 
the sufferer rather troubled her and hurt her. There- 
upon a brother of that woman’s husband came in, and 
gave the wholesome advice that she should be taken 
without delay to the church of the Martyrs; saying that 
she could be made whole there if she were ever to be 
made whole at all. So they began to lead her thither, 
mounted on a pack-horse; but when they were come 
near the church they made her get down from the pack- 
horse and walk on her feet. And when she was come to 
the spot where the turret which contained the bells of 
the church could be seen, those who were leading her 
bade her lift up her eyes and look at it, and she looked, 
and saw and without the intervention of any delay re- 
covered her soundness of body. Thereupon all together 
fell down on the earth, and gave thanks for the mercy 
of God in what words of praise they knew, and rising up _ 
made haste into the church; and after they had wor- 


7O 


shipped the most holy Martyrs, and made offerings ac- 
cording to their means, they went back, with great re- 
joicing, to their own affairs. We saw that same woman 
and talked with her; and those things which were 
wrought for her we have set down as she herself told 
them. 

Now I wish to tell what I myself saw on the day of 
the nativity of the blessed Martyrs. A certain deaf and 
dumb boy, who had come thither three years before, 
and had been made porter in the house of the guardian 
of the church, was sitting, when the feast day was past 
and vespers service ended, close to the door; and sud- 
denly rising he went into the church, and to the right of 
the altar fell down upon his face. And when the verger, 
who was placing a candlestick with lights before the 
altar, found him lying there, he took care to tell me at 
once. And we, who were then together, went quickly to 
the church, and found him lying just as the verger had 
reported. And when we bade him rise, he could not be 
stirred, being like one overcome by very heavy sleep. 
But a little while afterwards he sat up, as if awaking, 
and seeing us standing about him he stood up, and to 
those who were near him he spoke in Latin. Now there 
are certain of our household who say that, about six 
months before, when that same boy was asleep at night 
in the house of one of our men, he spoke two words in 
his sleep, and at that hour recovered his hearing, which 
up to that time he had lacked as much as speech. This 
they concluded from the fact that after he had awak- 
ened from that sleep he was careful to do everything 


71 


that he was ordered to do by anybody. But what seems 
most remarkable in this wonder is that then he under- 
stood those who spoke not Latin but the language of 
Barbarians; yet when he was made whole he discoursed 
not barbarously but in Latin. And he said that he had 
seen the blessed Martyrs, and had heard from them 
many things which he ought to tell others. But when he 
did not tell these things at once, but put them off to be 
told on the morrow, they were so destroyed within him 
by forgetfulness that he could remember nothing of 
what he had heard. And as he knew not his name, I or- 
dered that by reason of the prosperous result of the mir- 
acle he be called Prosper. And he is alive now, and 
keeps the same office he kept before in the household of 
the guardian of the church. 

Now the day before Prosper recovered his speech, — _ 
that is, on the eve of the feast-day, — a certain youth, 
likewise deaf and dumb, came into the church, and 
when with gestures of supplication he had implored the 
help of the saints he too, by the aid of God, was made 
wholly sound of both afflictions. Now as he also, like 
the other, had never heard his name, I called him Gott- 
schalk. But, after the power of speech was granted him 
through the merits of the Saints, he spoke not like 
Prosper, but after the manner of his people in a bar- 
barous tongue. 

Now when certain duties, according to custom, com- 
pelled me in the month of December — if I remember 
right on the very first day — to go to the court of the 
King, I left the abode of the Martyrs, and next day 


72 


came to the town which in modern time is called Wies- 
baden, there having abode for the night. And when, 
that we might more comfortably pass through the for- 
est which is about that place, we arose earlier than 
usual, the servants who went before us with baggage, 
set forth. But after they had left the town in which we 
tarried, and started on their way, such darkness of 
black night was all about them that they could not tell 
which way to turn. Besides it was very cold; and the 
earth, covered with frost, would not show them their 
path. And as the tops of the hills through which they 
must travel were covered with clouds they could not 
see how far off or near they looked. In addition to this, 
a heavy fog fell on the valleys, which filling their sight 
with its thickness checked them when they would have 
proceeded on their journey. And when they saw that 
they were checked by so many obstacles, and could not 
tell what to do, they dismounted from their horses, and 
tried to seek by groping the road which they could not 
see. But when this helped them little, they mounted the 
horses again, deciding that they had better run the risk 
of losing their way, of which they were sore afraid, than 
make long delay. So going on in the dark a very little 
way they came to a cross which had been set up in 
memory of the blessed Marcellinus on the road by 
which they were to travel. Now the reason why that 
cross was placed there was that, when I was returning 
two years before from the palace, and bearing the relics 
of the blessed Marcellinus, which had then been given 
back to me, the inhabitants of the town in which we 


73 


had just passed the night, had met us at that point; 
and in memory of this fact, they had set it up, in rever- 
ence to the blessed Martyr as if it were an inscription or 
a monument. And when the aforesaid servants, rather 
by straying than by finding their way, were come 
thither, they took counsel, and there waited for their 
fellows who were following; and, lest they should lose 
their way, they called them to themselves by the sound 
of a horn; and then, when they were all gathered to- 
gether, they called on the blessed Martyrs to bring 
them aid, and lifting up their voices on high they thrice 
chanted the Kyrze eleison. 

And when this was done, so great a flash of light sent 
from heaven shone over them just as many times that 
it equalled the clearness of daylight. And that lightning 
gave them such help in pursuing their journey, that, 
the fog melting and the darkness broken, they could go 
on their way, without any delay of straying though in 
the woods and amid hills dark with forests, even until 
the rising of the dawn. With the first flash, too, such 
warmth came together with the light that they said 
they felt as it were the heat of a kindled fire. And by 
that blast not only the fog but also the frost which till 
then had covered the hills and all the forest was so con- 
sumed that when the third flash was past hardly any 
trace of the bitter cold remained. These things they 
who had seen and experienced told us on the evening of 
the same day, after we came to where we were to tarry. 
Putting faith in their words, we gave praise to the 
mercy of Almighty God with every act of thanksgiving 


74 


because through the merits of his saints he had deigned 
to succour and to comfort us in all our needs. 
Although all the works which we have known to be 
done for the help of mortals through the merits of the 
blessed Martyrs are great, and should be attributed to 
divine power, the strength of Almighty God is neverthe- 
less so openly and clearly evident in the miracle which 
I have now ordered written down that no room for 
doubt is left but that whatever He wills to do for every 
one of His creatures He can most easily bring to pass. 
In the country of Niedgau is a village called Suntling, 
in which a certain priest, by name Waltbert, had a 
church. Afflicted in mind, to the great sorrow of his 
kinsfolk, he was brought to the church of the Martyrs. 
Three of those with him were his brothers, one a priest 
and two laymen; the fourth, a near kinsman, was a 
monk of the monastery of Hornbach, in which the 
priest himself had been educated from an early age. 
And when I asked them whether any help had been 
given him by any physician, “As soon,” they said, “as 
we understood that he was afflicted with this raving 
disorder, he was taken by us to the monastery in which 
he was brought up. And when the physicians there had 
done many things for him according to the cunning of 
their art, and could not drive the sickness out of him, 
our friends urged us to commit him to the pity of these 
Saints: for we believe that they can save him, even as 
we have heard many others to have been saved here.”’ 
After this, received into the lodging-house, they were 
four days with us, taking him daily into the church, 


75 


and making him lie down before the holy ashes of the 
Martyrs. But on the fifth day his brother the priest and 
the monk who was come with him, requested that I 
would keep him with his two brothers who were lay- 
men, until they should come back again; for they said 
that they would come back again in three days. I did as 
they wished, and confided him to our priest Hiltfried. 
And when he had been received by the priest, and had 
been taken to the cell in which he lodged himself, to- 
ward evening of the same day he was moved more vio- 
lently by the madness which possessed him, and snatch- 
ing up a knife which chance had put in his raving way 
he tried to kill one of his brothers who were taking care 
of him; but he avoided death by flight, and told our 
men, who were near by, of this access of fury. Then the 
priest to whom I had committed the care of him, pro- 
posed to me and persuaded me that I should let him be 
bound. So bound with iron chains he was put to bed, 
and with locked doors was left alone in the cell. His 
brothers lay before the door, and watched as carefully 
as if he had been strong enough to break his bonds. 
Besides, the chains with which he was held bound were 
of such sort that while he was in them he could not turn 
to right or left, nor lie except flat on his back. 

So he went to sleep, and as he himself testifies did not 
wake up until the middle of the night. But waking 
when the cocks began to crow, he found himself not 
only freed from bindings of chains but also delivered 
from the affliction of madness under’ which he had la- 
boured; and forthwith bent with all his mind to the ut- 


76 


terance of the praises of God in psalms and hymns, he 
sang them in his overflowing thankfulness so clearly 
that he waked all who were sleeping near the cell. Then 
getting up he went to the door, and asked his brothers, 
who were lying there, to let him come out, for the needs 
of nature. But they, thinking this the cunning of a mad- 
man, dared not consent; and sending for their host, who 
had shut him up there, they begged that he speak with 
him. And after he had spoken with him, and by the 
good sense of his answers understood him to be of sound 
mind, he opened the door and let him go where he 
would; and meeting him when he came back, he asked 
him what was become of the chains with which he had 
been laden. And he answered “The chain with which 
you bound me is safe, and if you wish to know where it 
is, seek 1t and you shall find.” So having kindled lights 
they found it lying before the bed in which they had 
made him rest, and arranged in the same manner and 
tied with the same knots as it had been when they fas- 
tened him with it to that very bed and left him alone in 
that very cell. Who can be believed to have done this, 
save He who made all things from nothing; and who 
can do with the things he has ordained wonders which 
can neither be understood by reason nor explained in 
the speech of man? For who can either imagine in his 
thoughts or tell in words by what means that priest was 
freed from these chains; for it is most certain to us that 
there is no one who alone could free himself from knots 
of that kind if he had been bound with them as that 


priest was when he was shut up alone in that cell? But 


77 


those who led him thither, after they came back and 
found him whole and in possession of his mind and 
memory, went back with him, rejoicing and giving 
praise to God, to where they belonged. That this mar- 
vel was thus wrought we did not learn from the witness 
of any others whatsoever, but, by the will of God we 
ourselves knew it, for we were still there; and we write 
of it so confidently because we came to know it, as the 
say, by ocular evidence. But inasmuch as all the 
things which we have determined to have writ- 
ten of the wonder-working of the Martyrs 
cannot becomprised in these presents, 
let this book end here, for what is 
left may better start from 
a new beginning. 


Cfapter 6, 


MIRACLES WROUGHT IN THE PALACE OF 
THE KING BY THESE SAINTS. BLINDNESS, 
CRAMPS, PALSY AND FEVERS CURED.@e2o *r 


N telling of the signs and wonders which I have 
purposed to write down in this book,' it seems to 
me that those should be placed first which, as 
they were wrought at the palace, came to the 

knowledge not only of the people, but of the King him- 
self and his nobles, and, so to speak, of all the court; 
and not so much for that reason as because at that time 
no other relics than those of the blessed Marcellinus 
and Peter were in our little oratory, where these mira- 
cles came to pass, so that any cures or wonders known . 
to have been wrought there belong and should be re- 
ferred to them whose relics alone were there. The same 
most blessed Martyrs, as we shall see in what follows, 
have wrought in the abiding places of other saints 
many wonders and miracles, which may not unreason- 
ably appear as it were common to them and to the 
saints in whose churches they came to pass; principally 
on this account —that those who are believed of 
equal merit in the sight of God, are not foolishly 
thought to work in common when miracles are accom- 
plished. But that this was otherwise is proved by the 


1. Here begins Book IV of the Surian edition. 


79 


consideration, which is clearly evident, that no won- 
ders had been wrought in these places before the afore- 
said relics of the blessed Martyrs had been borne 
thither. But now, as we have promised, let us set forth 
the miracles which were worked in the palace of which 
I have just spoken. 

There was a certain youth among the chamberlains 
of the King, by nation a Greek, by name Drogo; and 
seized by a fever, he suffered, by reason either of the 
carelessness of those about him or of the ignorance of 
physicians, from long weakness of health, for many 
months. And he, after the abbot Hildoin had returned 
us the relics of the blessed Marcellinus, as is set forth in 
- the second book, was counselled in dreams to go to our 
oratory, and there to light four candles bought with 
money, and to call on Saint Marcellinus, whose head was 
declared to be there, to give him help, and to be sure 
that if he did so he would very soon be delivered from 
the affliction under which he had long laboured. He be- 
lieved this admonition, and did what he was bidden do 
as soon as he possibly could. And presently made 
sound, and recovering the strength of his limbs, he 
went home on his own feet. 

There was also in the same place another young man, 
by name Geslach, of the city of Rheims, among those 
who had been bidden come from that city to construct 
the buildings of the palace. And he, about half a year 
before, in the street where he abode, was seized with so 
powerful and great contraction of the sinews that his 
feet clove to his buttocks and his knees to his chin. His 


80 


friends and neighbours, bearing him in their arms, car- 
ried him to the aforesaid oratory; and, since they could 
not place him otherwise, they laid him down upon his 
face, and with great devoutness begged the holy Mar- 
tyr that his health should be restored. The day was 
Sunday, and the hour of the day when he was brought 
thither was the third, and he lay there even until the 
ninth hour. And when the service of that same hour was 
finished by the clergy, behold there came from the 
shrine which contained the holy relics of the blessed 
Martyr so great a fragrance of the sweetest yet strange 
savour that it filled the whole little cell of the oratory, 
and in marvel at it all who were there presently rose up, 
and peered at one another with curious looks, to see if 
all had perceived it alike. And all at once they saw him 
who lay near them as it were pulled by hands holding 
him; and his limbs which had been drawn together by 
his malady were straightened: and knowing that the 
strength of God was there, they lifted up the man and 
set him down before the altar. And when he was placed 
there they besought the help of God with many tears, 
and in the sight of all he who had been borne into the 
oratory by the hands of others was made so straight 
that he went forth from the oratory on his own feet. 
But nevertheless he is even still known to bear in his 
body a trace of the suffering which he underwent: for 
he has ever after so limped with his left shin and foot 
that he has needed a crutch to control his gait. Why he 
was not wholly cured, let them say who will. As for me, 
I can only surmise that it was needful for his inner 


SI 


health that some trace of his outward trouble should 
remain with him. 

An old city, distant from the town of Aix-la-Chapelle 
by the space of eight leagues, 1s called Juliers. From the 
domains of that city a certain girl, afflicted with a simi- 
lar malady and in a similar way, was brought by her 
mother and others of her kin to the oratory aforesaid; 
and by reason of the crowd of people who by chance 
were then gathered there together to hear the solemn 
offices of the Mass, they could not carry her in, so they 
set her down outside the east window of the oratory, 
waiting for a chance when, the gathering of people 
being dispersed, they could bear her more easily into 
the oratory. But when about the middle of the service 
was arrived at, and, the Gospel having been read, the 
oblation of the host of our salvation was completed, 
they saw her seized with spasms, and a sweat breaking 
forth over her whole body, she fell as it were into a 
sleep. Concluding, and not in vain, from these tokens 
that the power of God was come thither they lifted her 
up and set her down on a square slab of stone which lay 
near by. And there, in the presence of all who had hur- 
riedly come together for the purpose of seeing this 
miracle, she recovered, by the help of God, and in the 
space of an hour, complete soundness of all her limbs. 
Among other lookers-on there were also Jews; of whom 
one, by name David, after the completion of this mir- 
acle, came quickly running to the window of the cell in 
which I then was, and calling me told me of the miracle 


which he had seen, giving thanks to God who through 
82 


His martyrs had deigned to work such great miracles 
for the weal of mortals. 

There was in the same town a certain blind man of 
advanced age, who, as he himself declared, had been 
stricken with sudden blindness three years before, and 
was in the habit of begging alms among others of the 
poor from door to door. While he was asleep in his little 
hut he saw in sleep a certain man come to his side and 
say that if he would like to see he should go to our ora- 
tory, for a doctor was there who could restore light to 
one who asked for it. He refused, and holding unwel- 
come the light which was offered, replied, “What use 
have I for sight, which I have now lost for so long? It is 
better for me to lack than to have it. For all listen to a 
beggar, and supply those things which are needful; and 
it is unseemly that onewho can see should beg; and I am 
old and feeble and cannot work.” Then he who spoke to 
him answered, “Go, and do not delay; for whether you 
will or no you shall recover sight.”” He obeyed the com- 
mand, and made his way to the oratory, and there 
passed the night; and when nothing happened all night 
long he went back to his hut. And there he who had be- 
fore appeared to him in sleep again appeared, and just 
as he had bidden him first, commanded him to go to the 
oratory. He did as he was ordered to do, but even then 
nothing happened. But warned for a third time he came 
again, and when he knelt before the altar to pray he re- 
covered his sight. This man, while he was still blind, we 
had often seen among others of the poor and infirm 
begging in our house: so we asked for no other evidence ~ 


83 


of his enlightening, because we thought enough for us 
the evidence of our own certain consciousness. 

Now when the helpful story of these works of power, 
and of many others like them, was spread through the 
towns and regions thereabout, a certain woman of the 
country of the Ripuarians, who had already been a long 
time blind, had both longing and faith that she should 
recover sight, and so asked to be taken to the aforesaid 
oratory. And when she was come there, she remained 
in fasting and prayer three whole days and as many 
nights. But when, though present there, she felt within 
her no sign of the soundness she desired, she was led 
back home; and after a few days had passed, having 
again conceived no vain hope of receiving light, she 
asked to be led back to the holy relics. And when she 
was guided thither by a single servant, — for those who 
had brought her there before, judging her hope vain 
and empty, would not go with her again, — and they 
were come to the cemetery of the palace of Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, which is situated on the hill overlooking the city 
from the eastern side, at that point, whither he had led 
and guided her, she recovered, even as if divine grace 
were come thither to meet her, her long-desired sight. 
Then, wondering and amazed, she bade the servant 
who had guided her to follow her: “Hitherto,” she said, 
‘T have followed where you have gone first and led me, 
but now I have no need of your guiding, for I see the 
way by which we must go; and by the help of God, I 
can discern this town in which are the holy relics to 

which I longed to come. So do you look and care only 


84 


that when we are within the city you lead me straight 
to the oratory of the Martyrs.”’ And when she had thus 
spoken, he guided her to the oratory, and there she 
gave thanks, and she told us of the miracle wrought for 
her, and so, restored to sight and rejoicing made her 
way back to her own people. 

Eschweiler they call a royal manor, distant from the 
palace of Aix-la~-Chapelle by the space of four leagues, 
in which there was a certain man, kept at home and in 
great trouble by a long weakness of the bowels; so that 
he was despaired of by his family to such a degree that 
it seemed as if he could be cured by no means unless by 
cautery. A physician was called for this purpose, and a 
day was appointed for this profitless burning. Mean- 
while it was revealed in sleep to a certain woman, in- 
habiting the same place, that he ought not to have re- 
course for his cure to a remedy of this kind, which 
would do the patient no good, both because he could 
hardly bear the pain of it and because it was wholly 
needless. On the other hand, if he wished to be made 
whole, he should go to the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, he 
should ask for our oratory, and he should have himself 
carried into it, and he should not leave it before three 
days were finished; by this means he should recover 
complete health. When this was told him, he sum- 
moned his friends and kinsfolk, and begged that for his 
sake they would fulfill the commands of that revela- 
tion. And having presently set him on a pack-horse, 
they took him to the oratory; and placing him in it, as 
had been commanded, they went away, purposing to 


85 


return after three days were past. And he, left there 
through three days and nights, not vainly supplicating — 
the Lord for the recovery of his health, was so com- 
pletely cured that he declared no trace to remain in his 
entrails of the pain by which they had for a long time 
been vexed. And when, as they had promised, his 
friends came back for him, and found him as they had 
hoped made whole, he went back home not on the back 
of a beast, as he had come, but by the use of his own 
feet, amid the great gladness and rejoicing of them all. 

There is another royal estate in the Meuse country, 
distant by about eight leagues from Aix-la-Chapelle; _ 
the inhabitants call it Gangelt. In this was a certain 
woman who had a daughter of some eight years so 
weakened by the dreadful disease of paralysis that for a 
long time past she could hardly move any one of her 
limbs for its appointed purpose. Having heard reports 
of the miracles, she conceived in her pious heart a hope 
of recovering her daughter’s health; and thereupon she 
took the pains to carry her in her own arms to the ora- 
tory aforesaid. And when she arrived there at that time 
of the morning which is the hour of breakfast, and 
found none of the clergy at hand, — for a little while 
before they had left for the purpose of refreshment, — 
she nevertheless went in and set her daughter down 
near her on the pavement. Then she herself, lighting a 
very small wax taper, which she had brought as an of- 
fering, put it on the same pavement in front of [her] 
(the child), and bowed herself down with the greatest 
reverence to pray before the holy ashes. And when this 


86 


was done, without the intervention of any delay, the 
girl who, without the mother’s knowledge, had recov- 
ered through divine grace the health and strength of all 
her limbs, rose up; and she took up the wax taper which 
lay beside her, and stood behind her who was bowed 
down. And when her prayer was finished she lifted her 
head from the pavement, and saw neither the taper nor 
her daughter in the spot where she had placed her, and 
she rose up and turning herself the other way she saw, 
praising God and full of joy, her daughter standing 
close beside her, holding the taper. So when she saw 
that no one was there to whom she could report the 
wonder that had been wrought, — for besides the poor, 
who lay there for the purpose of begging, there was no 
one but herself and her daughter within the walls of the 
oratory when the miracle was accomplished, — having 
fulfilled her vows with an act of thanksgiving, she went 
home on foot with her daughter safe and sound. 

Now how the fact of this miracle was made known to 
us I will briefly tell. Gerward, librarian of the palace, to 
whom the care of the works and buildings of the palace 
had been committed by the King, was coming back 
from Nimuegen, on his way to the palace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. And when he stopped one night at the royal 
estate aforesaid he asked his host if he had lately heard 
any news from the palace. And he answered and said: 
“Nothing is just nowso talked of among the courtiers as 
the signs and miracles which are wrought in the house 
of Eginhard by certain saints whose relics he is said to 
have in the oratory of his house; to the worship of 


87 


which all our neighbours hurry every day,and whoever 
is brought there ill is there cured.” — And he began to 
tell him about the daughter of that woman, and how 
a few days before she had been made whole. — Then 
Gerward said, “Go and bring that same woman to me, 
so that she may herself tell me what I wish to hear.” 
The woman came, and clearly set forth all, just as it 
had happened. And Gerward, when he came to the .- 
King next day, told him what he had learned of this 
miracle from the account of that woman. And the King, 
when according to custom I entered and stood before 
him, told both me and others who were standing by 
what Gerward had reported to him of this miracle, 
marvelling and giving praise to divine mercy 
and power. So it came about that the 
miracle which had been wrought in 
our house without our know- 
ledge was thus impressively 
made known to us. 


Cfapter ik 


MIRACLES BROUGHT TO PASS AT VALEN- 
CIENNES IN HAINAULT BY THE RELICS OF 
THESE SAINTS. LIGHT RESTORED TO TEN 
BLIND MEN, OTHER SICK MADE SOUND. @2 


HESE among the miracles of the blessed 

Martyrs which were wrought in the palace 

are enough to record in the present work. Now 

we must come to those wonders which were 
accomplished in places to which, at the request of reli- 
gious men and by my generosity, relics of those same 
Martyrs* came, and in which even unto this day they 
are worshipped with great devoutness. The first of all 
to have them by mygift was George, a priest and head of 
the monastery of Saint Salvius the Martyr, which 1s in 
the country of Famars, in the city called Valenciennes; 
and he sent them to the aforesaid monastery from the 
palace at Aix-la~Chapelle by a certain deacon. And 
when he, having with him only one companion, came in 
the country of Hesbaye to the royal domain which they 
call Visé, and dismounted in a field which was near the 
town for the purpose of refreshing his beasts, behold 
one of the dwellers in the place, bowed down with a 
1. This is not to be understood as meaning complete relics of the 


martyrs, but rather pieces, that is, fragments, of the same given by 
Eginhard to certain churches. 


89 


hump and his jaws also distended with a great swelling, 
— for as he himself said he had long suffered from a 
great aching of the teeth, — bearing on his shoulder an 
iron pitch-fork, came raging into the same field and 
asked in great anger why they were grazing in his field. 
Then the deacon who was carrying the relics of the Mar- 
tyrs, and was making ready to hang them on the top of 
a pole which he had set up for that purpose in that same 
place, said, “It is better for you to bow yourself down 
before these relics of Saints, which I have here in my 
hands, and to pray God that through the merits of 
these same Saints He deign to free you from the pain 
which you suffer; for the swelling which is to be seen in 
your face testifies that there is a great pain in your 
mouth.” And thereupon the man, casting aside the 
pitch-fork which he bore in his hand, threw himself on 
his face before the relics, and as the deacon advised him 
made prayer to God for his health. And, no long time 
having passed, he rose up from his prayer so whole that 
neither the swelling remained in his face, nor the pain 
in his teeth, nor the hump with which he had been bur- 
dened on his back. And thereupon, running quickly as 
he could into the village, he called on all his kinsmen 
and neighbours to praise God and give thanks to Christ 
the Lord. So there came together in the field a great 
multitude of people, and a crowd gathered from all the 
country thereabouts, to give thanks for him who had 
been made whole. And all begged the deacon to tarry 
there that night; and he could not deny them, for they 
were ready, unless he consented, to hold him there 


gO 


against his will. Then they kept vigil all night long, and 
the whole region echoed with the praises of God. But 
next day, when the deacon began to start on his way, 
that whole concourse of people who were gathered to- 
gether accompanied him in his departure with great 
reverence; nor would they either stop or turn back until 
they were met by others whom the report of this mira- 
cle had stirred up, coming to meet them. And in this 
manner the holy relics of the Martyrs, by reason of this 
miracle, were taken up by the peoples of those parts, 
and borne by the guidance of the Lord to the church of . 
Saint Salvius, whither George aforesaid had sent them. 
This miracle, it should be stated, was related to me by 
George himself; concerning the others, which are now 
to be set forth, I received from him a little book of 
which the order and sequence is as follows: 

In the fourteenth * year, by the blessing of Christ, 
of the Emperor Louis Augustus, when to confirm the 
faith of Christian people, as in the beginning of the 
lately born church, the Lord deigned to show signs 
and wonders in the very palace of the King, George the 
priest sought and received from Eginhard the abbot, in 
the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, relics of the blessed Mar- 
tyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, whose bodies he 
had received from Rome, borne by the hands of his own 
men: and placing them in a casket, which he had suit- 
ably adorned with gold and jewels, he sent them by the 
hands of his deacon, by name Theothard, to the church 


1. This appears to be an error of the scribe, and should read the fif- 
teenth year of the Emperor Louts. 


gl 


of Saint Salvius the Martyr, which at that time he held 
by the beneficence of the King. And when that deacon 
came to the royal town which 1s called Visé, there ran 
up in front of him a hunchback man, so troubled and 
tormented by aching of the teeth that for fifteen whole 
days he had been able to swallow no food but water 
alone. And when urged by the deacon he had bowed 
himself down to pray before the relics which he was 
bearing and had reverently and beseechingly called on 
the Lord Christ to have mercy upon him, through the 
intercession of the holy Marcellinus and Peter all dis- 
comfort was driven from his body, and he rose up from 
prayer sound. And this miracle was wrought on the 
thirteenth day before the calends of July. Since this has 
been more fully set forth by me above, I have thought 
fit to write it down here, close beside the account given 
by the aforesaid George. 

But when, on the third day, the deacon came with 
the relics to Valenciennes, and as he had been bidden 
bore them reverently and honorably into the church of 
Saint Salvius, a certain youth from the royal domain 
which is called Les Estinnes, by name Dominic, who 
had already been so troubled for a whole year by the 
disorder which the Greeks call spasm that he could 
hardly keep his right hand still, but it kept moving 
round and round, as if one turned a hand-mill, was so 
cured by the merits of the blessed Martyrs, the moment 
they entered, that afterwards no inconvenience of that 
horrible shaking was evident. And thereafter, on the 
fourth day, that is on the feast of the blessed John the 


92 


Baptist, a certain old woman, by name Gerrada, who 
declared that she had been blind for a year, having 
called on the blessed Martyrs while the solemnities of 
the Mass were celebrating, recovered through their 
merits, in the sight of all who were come together, the 
light which she had sought by faith. Likewise, on the 
feast of Saint Salvius, which falls on the sixth day before 
the calends of July, a certain deaf and dumb man, amid 
the solemnities of the Mass, was found worthy to re- 
ceive, through the request of the Martyrs, both hearing 
and speech. On the same day a certain old woman from 
the country of Laon, by name Rodeltrude, who for 
three years had not seen the light of the sky, recovered 
her sight while the same Mass was celebrating. On the 
fifth day before the calends of July, while divine service 
was in progress, a certain boy of about seven years, by 
name Donitian, who had been blind from birth, was 
given light through the merits of the blessed Martyrs. 

But on the eve of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, 
that is on the fourth day before the calends of July, a 
certain little girl, by name Theotbalda, being it was 
thought about nine years of age, who for three years 
had seen nothing, having taken her place at the hour of 
_ the holy office in the midst of the multitude of people, 
helped by the merits of the Martyrs, recovered her lost 
sight through the mercy of God. On the same day a cer- 
tain man, by name Dado, from the village called Petit- 
Pont, who had been bent for six years and could not lift 
himself toward the sky, and therefore walked bowed 
forward, with short crutches under his armpits for the 


93 


purpose of holding him up, at the same hour and in the 
same place, by the mercy of God and by the merits of 
the blessed Martyrs, was made straight and whole. 

On the fourth day before the nones of July, a certain 
widow, by name Adabruda, who deprived of the light of 
of her eyes had seen nothing for four years, having 
heard report of the miracles conceived, with no vain 
faith, a hope of getting back her sight; and having 
taken a staff in her hand, she started alone, without a 
guide, for Valenciennes. And when she drew near the 
town, it seemed to her that with her right eye she saw 
as it were a single ray of sunshine; and thereupon, with 
a pure heart, she prayed the pity of God that through 
the intercession of His saints he would allow her to see 
the church of Saint Salvius. And immediately she was 
heard, and through the mercy of the Lord obtained 
without delay what she had desired. On the same day, 
too, a certain other woman from the country of Noyon, 
by name Ruvitla, blind for five years, recovered, amid 
the solemnities of the Mass, by the gift of the Lord 
Christ through the merits of His saints, the light which 
she had lost. 

On the octave of the Apostles, that is on the day be- 
fore the nones of July, a certain man, by name Gun- 
thard, from the same country, smitten as it were with a 
palsy, was led by his kinsfolk to the church of Saint Sal- 
vius: and they say that he had already had this trouble 
for a year, and that the left part of his body was so very 
weak that he could neither lift his hand to his mouth 
nor wash himself nor put on his shoes. He, by the mercy 


94 


of God and the merits of the saints, at the time of 
morning service, while it was celebrating, was made 
whole. 

And likewise another man, by name Hildebon, com- 
ing from the monastery which is called the Twins, who 
had been blind from childhood and through all his life 
had not seen the light of the sky, while the Mass was 
celebrating on that same day in that same church, re- 
covered through the same saints, by the mercy and 
help of the same Lord, his sight, and was found worthy 
to see clearly all the things that he had never seen be- 
fore. And on the day of the nones of July a certain little 
girl, by name Reginlind, who seemed to be not more 
than seven years old, and had lacked the light of her 
eyes for three years, and among others had taken her 
place in the church to hear divine service, by the inter- 
cession of the merits of the saints, was given sight in the 
presence of the whole multitude. On the fourth day be- 
fore the ides of July, a certain blind woman, by name 
Alagia, who for almost two years had lacked sight, amid 
the holy solemnities of the Mass, at the beseeching 
prayers of the saints, was given the light again by our 
Lord Jesus Christ. On the same day a certain very old 
blind man, from the village of Gheule, by name Ermen- 
ward, wha had been able to see nothing for fourteen 
years, came into the church for the vespers service, and 
called on the blessed Martyrs, and immediately, his 
blindness melting away, he recovered, by the help of 
the Lord his long-desired sight. 

On the seventh day before the calends of August, a 


95 


certain girl who was vexed with an unclean spirit was 
brought into the church while the office of the holy 
Mass was celebrating, and there through the power of 
Christ and the merits of the blessed Martyrs the evil 
spirit fled away, and she recovered the soundness of her 
mind and the health of her body. These are the miracles 
and wonders which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to 
work, through the merits of His holy Martyrs Marcel- 
linus and Peter, in the city of Valenciennes, for the 
good of the human race: and these George aforesaid 
took care to send us set down in a little book, and we 
have thought well to insert in this work of ours. 
This George is a Venetian, who came out of 
his own country to the Emperor, and | 
in the palace of Aix-la~Chapelle 
set up with wondrous skill 
an organ which in Greek 


is called hydraulic. 


Chapter 8. 


MIRACLES AT GHENT, IN THE MONASTERY 
OF SAINT BAVON, BY THE RELICS OF THESE 
SAINTS. EIGHT BLIND MEN RESTORED TO 
LIGHT. OTHER SUFFERERS HELPED. “o@ee 


NOTHER little book was sent me from the 
monastery of Saint Bavon, which is situated 
near the Scheldt in the place called Ghent, 
where that stream is joined with the river 

Lys, by the brothers who there serve God, at whose re- 
quest I sent relics of the aforesaid martyrs of Christ to 
that monastery; in which these facts are to be found in 
the following order: 

In the eight hundred and twenty-eighth year after 
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, relics of the 
holy Martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, came to 
the monastery of Saint Bavon, on the fifth day before 
the nones of July, the sixth day of the week, which is 
written VI. Now three days later, that is the next Sun- 
day, which was the third day before the nones of July, a 
certain blind girl, by name Hartlinda, from the village 
which is called Furnes, whom her father and mother 
testified to have lacked the use of her eyes for eight 
years, when she was led before the altar on which the 
holy relics of the Martyrs were placed, in the presence 
of all who were there, by the mercy of the Lord, recov- 


97 


ered her sight. And eight days later, that is on the fourth 
day before the ides of July, another girl likewise blind 
was brought there, by name Helrada, from the village 
called Machelen: whose parents reported of her that on 
the eighth day after she was baptised she was stricken 
with a sudden blindness. And she too presently in the 
presence of the holy ashes of the Martyrs, recovered — 
the Lord giving it back to her — the light she had so 
long lost. And three days thereafter, which was the day 
before the ides of July, a certain girl came thither, bent 
forward, by name Bildrada, from the village of Boderet, 
which belongs to the monastery of Saint Vaast. And 
when, before the aforesaid relics of the Saints, she had 
humbly besought the Lord Christ for the restoration 
of her health, in the presence of all who were there she 
stood erect, and was held worthy to recover complete 
soundness of body in a moment of time. | 

And afterward, on the twelfth day before the calends 
of August, a certain woman, by name Eddela, a serf of 
Saint Amand, from the village called Bacerode, who for 
many years was said to have lacked the light of her 
eyes, happily praying there recovered her sight. On 
the same day a certain serf of Saint Bavon, by name 
Eberald, from the village of Muller, who also for many 
years had not seen the light of heaven, in full sight of 
all who were there present, was in the same place pre- 
sented with the long-desired rays. And on the same 
day also two widows who had been blind for many 
years, were there given light: of whom one was by 
name Blidwara, from the village of Eessene; and the 


98 


other, called Ricberta, is said to have been from the 
village of Wormhout. 

Twenty-five days later, that is on the feast of the 
Assumption of Saint Mary, a certain woman by name 
Angaraheld, from the village of Ghoy, in the presence 
of the holy relics of the Martyrs, with everybody look- 
ing on and marvelling at what had happened, was so 
bent down that she could hardly stand up to look at the 
heavens. And she next day, that is on the seventeenth 
day before the calends of September, in the same 
church and witnessed by the same people, was made 
straight and restored to her former state, even as if she 
had never been bowed down to earth by any trouble of 
her body. And later, on the twenty-second day of the 
month of September, that is on the tenth before the 
calends of October, a certain man of the country of 
Texandria, from the village which is named Alphen, 
called Liodold, who by reason of weakness in his 
left leg and foot held himself up for walking on two 
crutches, was there, in the sight of the people, so per- 
fectly cured that thereafter in walking about he had 
not the least need of crutches. 

Now on the fourth day after the accomplishment of 
this miracle, that is on the seventh before the calends of 
October, a certain deaf and dumb youth, who also had 
a twisted left hand, by name Hunwald, from the village 
called Corbehem, when he was come before the holy rel- 
ics of the Martyrs, and there had prayed humbly, was 
made so whole as if he had never been either deaf or 
dumb or anywise afflicted by contraction of muscles in 


99 


the hand. And on the following day, that is on the sixth 
before the calends of October, a certain woman, by 
name Engilgard, who for many years had been afflicted 
with the grievous trouble of palsy, in the same church, 
through the merits of the blessed Martyrs, was cured in 
the presence of everybody. She was a serf belonging to 
the bishopric of Tournia, from the village which is 
named Warcoin. Next day, that is the fifth before the 
calends of October, a certain other woman, by name 
Ramburga, from the village of Bertinghem, very feeble, 
because of a similar trouble in the lower part of her 
body, recovered, in the sight of all who were there, in 
the presence of the same relics of the Saints, the full 
strength of her limbs. And by the will of God was made 
free in a moment of time from the sickness under which 
she was said to have laboured for ten years. 

On the same day a certain blind man, by name Ger- 
mar, from the village of Schaltheim, which is situated 
on the sea-coast of the Frisians near the mouth of the 
river Scheldt when he had prayed there for the mercy 
of God on the loss which he suffered, and had called on 
the blessed Martyrs, was found worthy to receive with 
joy the long denied light. And on the fourth day after 
this miracle came to pass, by the will of the Lord, that 
is on the day before the calends of October, a certain 
female serf of Saint Bavon, by name Gundrada, from 
the village of Audeghem, who for almost three years 
had not seen the sun, when she bowed herself in prayer 
before the altar recovered, by the generosity of the 
Lord Christ through the merits of His saints, the light 
which she had lost. 


Chapter Q. 


BY RELICS SENT TO MAESTRICHT, THE 
BLIND, THE DEAF, THE DUMB, THE DIS- 
TORTED, THE PALSIED ARE CURED. ceca 


THIRD little book was sent me by the broth- 

ers of the monastery of Saint Servais the 

Confessor, which is situated on the bank of 

the river Meuse, in the city which is to-day 

called Maestricht, and is distant from the palace of 
Aix-la~-Chapelle about eight leagues, and is much fre- 
quented by a multitude of inhabitants and particularly 
of merchants. And the text of this, as I remember, ap- 
pears to be composed as follows: The coming of the 
holy Martyrs of Christ, Marcellinus and Peter, to the 
city of Maestricht, took place on the day before the 
nones of June. For on that day a vast multitude of 
people came out from the city to meet them, having 
come together to receive them; and they praised and 
blessed God for his limitless and unspeakable mercy in 
that He deigned to visit through such mighty patrons a 
people which believed and had faith in Him. And when, 
with these praises and rejoicings of the spirit, they were 
come to the church of the Blessed Servais, and when 
there, amid the great thankfulness of all, the solemnities 
of the Mass had been celebrated, and everyone had re- 
turned to his occupations, the casket in which the holy 
ashes had been brought, was placed to the right of the 

IOI 


altar in the chancel; and all that day was passed by the 
people who dwelt in that city with great happiness and 
rejoicing. 

And when, for the purpose of celebrating the office of 
vespers according to custom, we were come into that 
same church, there was present there, among others, a 
certain boy, by name Berngisus, whom his friends com- 
ing thither from the country of Androz a few days be- 
fore had brought with them; and he was blind from 
birth. And of a sudden, in the presence of them all, he 
fell down on the pavement, and lay there a good while 
as if heavy with sleep; and by and by, having opened 
his eyes, he gazed, by the gift of the Lord Christ 
through the merits of His saints, on the light which he 
never saw before. And five days thereafter, that is on 
the sixth before the ides of June, a certain man, by sur- 
name Hildimar, who was deaf and dumb, received, by 
the power of Christ and in the presence of those same 
holy relics of the saints, both hearing and likewise 
speech. 

And on the same day also a certain girl of the house- 
hold of Saint Lambert, by name Adallind, who was not 
only deaf and dumb, but also blind, and throughout her 
whole body was twisted by a shortening of the muscles 
in so pitiable a way that her knees touched her breast, 
was placed by her kinsfolk beside the holy relics of the 
Martyrs; and there, in the presence of all who were 
gathered together, she recovered with marvellous 
quickness, by the grace of God, both sight and hearing, 
speech too and the straightness and strength of all her 


102 


limbs. But next day, that is on the fifth before the ides 
of June, when a certain royal serf, by name Berohad, 
from the village of Crecy, the right part of whose body 
had become through contraction of the muscles wholly 
weak and useless, was brought before the aforesaid rel- 
ics of the saints, he presently stood up, and without any 
delay was restored to the health which he longed for. 
And likewise a certain girl from the very town of Maes- 
trict, by name Theothild, whose right hand was snarled 
and twisted by a similar trouble to such degree that it 
was useless for any purpose, was on the same day, be- 
fore the same relics of the Saints, in like manner cured. 

And when these things were seen, the people come 
together in the church began, by reason of their great 
and exultant rejoicing, to lift up their voices on high, 
singing praises to the Lord in hymnsand litanies. And of 
a sudden there came in a certain deaf boy, and he stood 
in the midst of the crowd of people like one stunned 
and thunderstruck. And then, when he was come before 
the altar of Saint Saviour, which is placed in the middle 
of the church, the blood gushed forth from his nostrils, 
and he was given the power of hearing, of which he had 
long been deprived. But next day, that is on the fourth 
before the ides of June, it seemed to us that the litter 
which held the holy ashes of the Martyrs ought to 
be lifted higher, to the end that it might be somewhat 
above the altar on which it was placed and so more 
easily seen by them that flocked thither. And while we 
were doing this, and while so doing were singing litan- 
ies in praise of God, a certain girl of the household of 


103: 


Saint Servais, whose feet from birth had been twisted by 
shortening of the muscles, and whose hands had been 
melted into uselessness by lengthening of the same, and 
who was dumb as well, and whom a little while before 
her kin had brought into the church and placed beside 
the litter, was suddenly restored to health; so that at the 
same hour she acquired the power of speaking, of walk- 
ing and of using her hands perfectly for all her needs. 
Now a certain woman of the very city of Maestricht 
had a blind maid-servant, by name Adalgard; and she 
brought her into the church, and committed her to the 
holy Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, that through their 
intercession she might be found worthy to recover her 
sight; and there left her. And when, after the service of 
vespers was finished, she was standing in that same 
church, of a sudden, as though smitten by some one, 
she fell down on the pavement; and having writhed 
there a good while, at last, to the great astonishment 
and wonder of the people standing about her, she rose 
up seeing clearly. This happened on the ides of June, at 
eventide, just when the shades of night were beginning. 
A certain man from the province of Burgundy, of the 
territory of Geneva, by name Theotgar, suffering from 
the disorder which physicians call by the Greek word 
spasm, bat which in Latin, by reason of the constant 
movement of the limbs, may not unreasonably be 
called a trembling, came into the church, and took his 
stand in the midst of the crowd of people who were 
gathered together, as is usual of a Sunday, to hear the 
solemnities of the Mass. And when, after the reading of 


104 


the gospel was finished, they were reciting the symbol 
of Christian belief, of a sudden he fell shaking down on 
the ground; and while divine service went on he lay 
there almost without movement and more like one 
dead than alive; and when the holy office was over, a 
great deal of blood gushed from his nostrils, and amid 
the great wonder of the people who were looking on he 
stood up whole, and without any trembling at all. This 
miracle was wrought on the eighteenth day before the 
calends of July, being a Sunday, as is set down above. 

But on the fourth day of the week, that is on the 
fifteenth before the calends of July, a certain boy, by 
name Folchard, from the monastery which is called 
Meldert, who was twisted by a pitiable shortening of 
muscle in his legs and feet, was cured in the same place, 
and in the sight of everybody. On the eleventh day be- 
fore the calends of July, a certain man came to the 
church and entered into it with others, whose right 
hand together with the arm kept moving around in an 
astonishing manner, as if he were grinding a hand-mill 
and must do so without stopping. He said that this dis- 
quiet had come upon him for the reason that he had 
used a mill one Sunday, as is forbidden by the com- 
mandment; and that now a whole year had passed 
throughout which he had paid this penalty. And when 
he came near the holy relics of the Martyrs, and there 
besought them full of faith, that movement as of a mill 
fell asleep in sudden quiet. This man said that he came 
from the monastery of the Scots which is called Fosse, 
and that he was named Dothius. 


105 


On the eve of Saint John the Baptist, which is the 
ninth day before the calends of July, a certain man of 
condition came to Maestricht to the church of Saint 
Servais, who said that he was from the city of Tournai. 
And he, as he declared, had been deaf and dumb from 
childhood: and taken by his kinsfolk to Saint Sebastian 
he there began both to hear and to speak, but imper- 
fectly, for his words were hardly understood; and he 
too, when others spoke to him, could not disguise the 
thinness of his hearing. And when he came thither to 
the morning service, he cast himself down before the 
holy relics, and fell fast asleep. Not much later, as if 
wakened by one shaking him, he asked those standing 
near him who had struck him a blow in the mouth. And 
when they all answered and said that no one had done so 
he stood up: and made whole at the same time he both | 
heard and spoke perfectly, with no trouble at ail. 

On the same day, while the holy solemnities of the 
Mass were celebrating, a certain woman, by name Ada- 
lind, brought two wax candles, for the purpose of mak- 
ing light in the church: one of which she gave with her 
right hand to a verger, that it might be kindled; but 
meanwhile she kept the other in her left hand, as if to 
be lighted later from the former. But in a wondrous 
manner, when the verger lighted that which had been 
given him, that which remained in the woman’s hand 
was kindled before the eyes of all by divine power. 

A monastery of nuns, by name Eike, is situated on 
the river Meuse. And there a certain woman conse- 


crated to God, by name Saliga, lay, her whole body ex- | 
106 


cept the right arm afflicted with the dreadful disease of 
paralysis. To her, in the quiet of the night, a certain 
man from among her neighbours appeared to stand be- 
side her, and to address her in words like these, as if he 
said, “What are you doing?’’ And when she answered 
him that she was only resting in her own bed, he said, 
“Have you heard anything about the saints who are 
come to Saint Servais’s in Maestricht®?’? And when 
she told him that she had heard nothing about them, 
‘Arise,’ he said, “and hurry to get thither as fast as 
you can; for there you shall recover the strength of all 
your limbs.” But since, on waking, she took no pains 
to do so, she was again advised on the following night, 
by the same man and in like manner, to set out for 
Maestricht. Yet then, as before, she had no respect for 
the voice of warning and its command, and delayed her 
start. But on the third night she saw the same man 
come up beside her, and ask with a certain severity why 
she disdained his advice; and he struck her in the side 
with the staff which he then seemed to hold in his hand 
and bade her set out speedily for Maestricht. And she 
dared not disobey the command of a trinal vision, and 
having called together her neighbours and friends she 
was carried as she had been bidden to Maestricht, and 
set down in the church of Saint Servais, near the holy 
ashes of the Martyrs. And after she had there awaited 
the coming of her promised health, at last on the fifth 
day after she was come thither, to the great wonder of 
all she was found worthy to recover full soundness of all 


her body. 


Chapter 10. 


TWO MIRACLES, WROUGHT BY THE INTER- 
CESSION OF SAINTS PROTUS AND HYACINTH 
AND OF SAINT HERMES, IN THE CHURCH OF 
SAINTS MARCELLINUS AND PETER -=ca=s 


HERE remain two very signal miracles, 
which I not only believe should not be hidden ~ 
by silence, but rather feel sure that the writ- 
ing down of them may make the most fitting 
end of my fourth volume, which is now in hand. And 
although these wonders appear to have been wrought 
by the blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in com- 
mon with other saints, — for one of them occurred on 
the coming of the relics of Saints Protus and Hyacinth, 
and close beside these relics themselves; and the other 
certainly had to do with the relics of Saint Hermes, on 
his birthday, — nevertheless it seems that they should 
chiefly be ascribed to them in whose church they came 
to pass, where their most holy bodies lie at rest. But the 
authority for these events rests with ourselves, who 
were present, and whom the goodness of God permitted 
to see them. And so, with no more preface, let us come 
to the miracles themselves which are to be told. 
Gregory, bishop of the city of Rome, who at one and 
the same time succeeded Eugene and Valentine * in the 
1. Valentine appears to have died in September, 827, less than a 
month after the death of his predecessor, Eugene II. 
108 


honour of the papacy, desiring to enlarge the church of 
Saint Mark, the Evangelist, in which he had been priest, 
and to build a monastery hard by it, searched the ceme- 
teries and the churches built at greater distance from 
the city, to see if he could find there bodies of holy mar- 
tyrs: and when he found them took pains to carry them 
to the church which he was munificently rebuilding. 
Now it happened by chance that at the time when the 
tomb of the most blessed Hermes was about to be 
opened and his holy body to be taken from thence, one 
of our household, who in that same year was come to 
Rome for the purpose of prayer, as is the manner of the 
penitent, joined, together with other pilgrims, the 
crowd gathered in the church of the Martyr. And he, 
when he had carefully looked at the proceedings which 
were going on, conceived, in all simplicity of heart yet 
not without reason, a hope of laying hands on relics of 
the Martyr aforesaid; and going to Deusdona the dea- 
con, of whom we made frequent mention in our first 
book, he besought him with all his might to obtain even 
a little bit of them from those who had the place in 
charge, and to give it to him that it might be brought 
‘to me. And he, eagerly approving his petitions, prom- 
ised that he would do so without delay; and, having 
given a fee to the guardians, he received relics not only 
of Saint Hermes but of Saints Protus and Hyacinth 
also, whose bodies had been placed in the same church. 
And these he was at pains to send by a certain member 
of his household, whose surname was Sabbatinus, to- 
gether with our own man who had persuaded him to do 


109 


what he had done; but what he could obtain of the 
body of the blessed Hermes he himself, coming to us, 
brought as a gift of great price. Now when we were told 
of the coming to us of the relics of Saints Protus and 
Hyacinth, we went out in procession to meet them; 
and we took them up, as was fitting, in honourable 
manner, and bearing them to the church with hymns 
and prayers we set them down, together with the bier 
on which they were come, beside the bodies of the 
blessed Marcellinus and Peter. And when, next day, a 
certain woman from a neighbouring manor, which is 
called Baldradestadt, who was possessed of a devil, en- 
tered there with other people, the evil spirit began to 
rage, and to throw her flat on the pavement, and to 
make his malice evident by proclaiming it in the pres- 
ence of all. And when he was asked by the priest that 
exorcised him who he was, whence he came, and when 
and why he had entered into her, he answered each 
question, and declared that he was not only a demon 
but the most evil of all things living. And when the 
priest asked him the cause of so great wickedness, he 
answered that he held himself so by reason of ill will. 
And when again he asked him if he had ever been in 
heaven, he confessed that he had been in heaven and 
had been cast down from thence by reason of pride. 
And to the same one asking whether he had not seen 
Christ the Lord, he said that He had been seen by him 
in Hell, at the time when, for the salvation of the hu- 
man race, He had deigned to die and to descend thither. 

But when it came to the point where he asked him if 


IIo 


he knew the names of the Martyrs, whose relics had 
been brought to that church the day before, “Their 
names,” he said, “are very well known to me: for when 
they suffered I was standing close by them, and I was 
tortured with boundless envy of their eternal glory; 
and even here 'too I suffer from their most troublous 
enmity: for they torture me with torment beyond be- 
lief, and they are forcing me unwillingly to go forth from 
this vessel in which I have long lain hidden.” And the 
priest said unto him, “When thou comest forth whither 
shalt thou go?”’ And he said, “I shall take the worst of 
roads, and shall seek regions far-off and empty.” And 
after this, when he had told the priest who adjured him 
both the time and the manner of his entering into her, 
he turned himself to the woman, saying “ Before I come 
forth from thee, unhappy woman, I will shake and 
break thy bones, and I will leave thee all weak and 
mindful that I have been with thee.”’ And when she, as 
though conscious of her infirmity, began with humble 
and submissive voice to implore the aid of the Saints, he 
presently, foaming and howling through her own 
mouth with vast harshness, commanded her who would 
speak to hold her tongue. And it was very wondrous for 
us who were there present to see how that foul spirit 
spoke through the mouth of that little woman in a man- 
ner so different from hers: for she uttered so pure a 
quality now of man’s voice and again of woman’s that 
there seemed to be not one person there but two, bit- 
terly disputing, and lashing one another in turn with 
loud outcries. And in truth there were two voices, quar- 


Tea 


relling with each other according to their divers wills: 
the one was the devil’s who longed to smash the body 
possessed by him, the other was the woman’s, who 
longed to be made free from the enemy by whom she 
was held; and this diversity of wills could clearly and 
openly enough be understood from the unlikeness of 
their voices and the great difference of the words which 
they flung one at the other. Now when according to 
custom the office of the heavenly mystery was finished, 
and the time came for us to leave the church for the due 
care of our bodies, we ordered the woman to be kept 
there with the guardians until we should return, having 
faith that through the virtue of Christ and the merits of 
His Martyrs, the faithless possessor of her would soon 
come forth. Nor was our hope unfulfilled. For when, 
after eating, we came back to church, we found the 
devil cast out of her, and she was safe and sound, and in 
possession of all her wits, and lifting up her voice in the 
praises of God. Now it is clear that this wonder was 
wrought on the coming of the relics of the blessed Mar- 
tyrs of Christ, Protus and Hyacinth, in such manner as 
we have set forth; but that which is ascribed to Saint 
Hermes, and in what manner it came about will be ~ 
made clear in the narrative now to follow. 

Cologne is the metropolis in the territory of the Ri- 
puarians, established on the Rhine. And in it was a cer- 
tain woman so weakened by a chronic stretching of the 
muscles from the loins downward that, denied the use 
of her legs and feet, she could not accomplish the office 
of walking otherwise than in a sitting posture, with her 


II2 


feet stretched out’in front, pushing herself with hands 
placed on the ground and in this manner propelling her- 
self. And she, having heard of the miracles and wonders 
which the Lord had wrought through his holy Martyrs 
Marcellinus and Peter for the cure of thé sick and the 
weak, was seized with a great desire to come to their 
church; and since she could not otherwise travel with 
any ease, she took passage in the boat of merchants who 
were going thither for the feast of those Saints: and she 
arrived there on the day of their nativity, and there 
abode a good while in the hope of recovering her 
health. But when she perceived that her cure was de- 
layed, — and in all truth it was delayed, not denied; for 
not elsewhere but there, and not then but at another 
time, it was to be brought about, — she decided to go 
on to Mayence. For the feast of Saint Alban the Martyr 
was close at hand, and he has in that city both a church 
and a very celebrated monastery. And when she came 
thither, and besought the Lord beside the shrine of the 
Martyr for the restoration of her health, she saw in 
sleep a certain young clerk come close beside her, bear- 
ing in his hand new shoes, and bidding that she take. 
them and put them on her feet: and thereupon she did 
so. Then he commanded that shod with these she 
should go back to the place whence she was come, and 
there await the coming of the physician who beyond 
any doubt should cure her. And when she was awake 
she put faith in the vision, and went back to the healing 
threshold of the holy Martyrs with all the speed she 


could; and for two months abiding in that place among 


113 


others of the poor, she awaited the fulfilment of what 
the vision had promised. Now meanwhile, about the 
middle of the month of August, the deacon Deusdona, 
of whom we made frequent mention in the first book of 
this work, brought us as a great present a single joint of 
the finger of the blessed martyr Hermes. And receiving 
it, enclosed in a little box, we placed it in the upper part 
of the church, above the door by which they enter from 
the West. But the woman who, as I have said, was come 
thither divinely warned by a vision, and after two 
whole months found that none of the promised help had 
been vouchsafed her, began to think that she had been 
deceived by a vain dream and that she might best go 
back to her own country. And she made bargain with 
the traders who should take her back that the next Sun- 
day, which was the fifth day before the calends of Sep- 
tember and also the day when the anniversary of Saint 
Hermes was solemnly to be celebrated, they should 
carry her to their boat, to go back to her own parts. 
Now when the night had fallen which was undoubtedly 
to precede the day thus fixed for her departure, and we, 
according to our custom when the night service was 
finished, came out to go to bed, and all the others were 
issuing from the church, that woman, desiring to go in, 
sat herself down on the threshold. And there, in the 
presence of all, overcome by a certain faintness, she 
held her tongue for a little while; and then, after a good 
deal of blood had run out from all her toe-nails, she 
came back to herself and held out her hand to those 
about her, and lifted to her feet she began to walk to 


I14 


the tomb of the Martyrs. And when she was come 
thither she cast herself down in prayer before the altar, 
and there she lay so long that the hymn which the 
multitude of them who rejoiced and marvelled sang 
most devoutly to the praise of God was finished. And 
when it came to an end she rose up sound; but she had 
no more wish to go home to her country. Now that 
miracle is rightly to be credited to the blessed Hermes, 
on whose feast day and beneath whose relics it was 
wrought. But nevertheless the most holy Martyrs Mar- 
cellinus and Peter may have had their part in the work, 
which came to pass in their church; and the woman. 
who was cured always called on them, throughout all 
the time of her pilgrimage, to help her. 

These are those of the numberless miracles of the 
Saints, either seen by us or reported to us by the truth- 
ful account of the faithful, which we have decided to 
commit to letters and memory. And I doubt not that 
they will be pleasant reading for lovers of Christ and 
worshippers of his martyrs; for nothing seems beyond 
their power, if the doing of it please Almighty God. But 
I hope that unbelievers and they that belittle the glory 
of the saints may be induced not to read them at all; 
for I doubt not that they would seem fantastic. And so, 
perhaps annoyed by the crudity of our style, they might 

not be strong enough to avoid blasphemy and envy, 

thereby making clear that they hate God and their 
neighbour, whom they are bidden love. 


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